Single life is far harder in an age of social media than when Bridget Jones was first created in the mid-1990s, the book's author has said.

Speaking at the world premier of the third film, Bridget Jones' Baby, Helen Fielding said social networks have completely changed dating since she first wrote about the singleton in a newspaper column in 1995 and since the first film was released in 2001.

The growth of social media has transformed the way in which we feel about relationships, with a gap between how we think we should be and how we actually feel, the author said.

Fielding added that the images people create of themselves on social media are how they want to be seen at their best, making everyone else feel "a bit bad about themselves".

One of the positive changes is that while "it genuinely was slightly embarrassing to be single in your 30s", said Fielding of when the character was first created, it is now more "accepted".

In the books Bridget Jones jokes that she is single and in her 30s because "underneath my clothes my whole body is covered in scales".

The author was joined at the Leicester Square premier by Renee Zellweger, who has played Bridget in all three films, as well as Colin Firth and newcomer Patrick Dempsey, who play her rival love interests.