Pop star Harry Styles has received an apology from editors at Britain's Daily Star newspaper after they published a fake nude photo earlier this year (14).

Tabloid bosses claimed the One Direction frontman had posted explicit photos of himself online and ran a story featuring what they insisted was one of the revealing pictures of the 20 year old in May (14).

The photographs turned out to be doctored and now editors have issued a formal apology.

A statement published in the newspaper reads: "We said that Harry Styles of One Direction had posted explicit photos of himself online and we published one of them.

"In fact, the pictures had been Photoshopped (sic) and were fake. They were not posted by Harry Styles and were not pictures of him. We apologise to Harry for any embarrassment and distress our article may have caused."