Zayn Malik left One Direction to save his relationship with Little Mix's Perrie Edwards.

The 22-year-old hunk's bandmate Liam Payne has revealed Zayn decided to leave the band back in March in a bid to rescue his romance with the 'Wings' singer, as well as to spend more time with his family.

Liam revealed: ''He wanted to spend time with his family and his missus. That's cool with us.''

At the time of his departure, the 'Night Changes' singer said he was leaving to lead a ''normal'' life, but was surrounded by rumours he had cheated on his fiancée Perrie at the time, after he was pictured holding hands with another woman in a Thai nightclub.

However, Liam insisted there are no hard feelings between himself, Zayn and the remaining band members Niall Horan, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, as they can understand his motives.

He told Lisa Snowdon on Capital FM: ''Sometimes you have to move on because you're not enjoying what you're doing as much as you used to.''

Shortly after Zayn announced he would leave the band, fans took to Twitter to blame Perrie for causing the hunk to leave, angrily comparing her to the wife of late Beatles musician John Lennon, Yoko Ono, who was rumoured to have caused tension within the band at the height of their fame in the 1960s.

One fan tweeted: ''Perrie's the modern day Yoko Ono ... I can't believe this. (sic)''