One Direction star Zayn Malik quits tour due to stress

One Direction star Zayn Malik has quit the boyband’s world tour after being “signed off with stress” and is returning to the UK.

It comes after the singer was forced to defend himself online and declare his love for fiancee Perrie Edwards after pictures emerged of him apparently close to another woman.

A spokesman for the band said: “Zayn has been signed off with stress and is flying back to the UK to recuperate. The band wish him well and will continue with their performances in Manila and Jakarta.”

It comes the day after the heartthrob, whose fiancee is a member of Little Mix, told his 14.1m Twitter followers: “I’m 22 years old... I love a girl named Perrie Edwards. And there’s a lot of jealous fucks in this world I’m sorry for what it looks like x”

A picture, which has been widely shared and published online, showed Malik with his arm around the bare stomach of a woman in a cropped top.

They look like they are posing for the picture and are both smiling, appearing to be cheek-to-cheek.

A second photo, taken from behind, shows Malik standing close to the woman and their hands and arms appear to be interlinked.

The pair appear to share a love of tattoos, with both of their arms adorned in designs and the woman also has a tattoo down her side.

The band are due to play gigs in Manila and Jakarta before moving on to play three gigs in South Africa next week.

It was reported earlier yesterday that Malik and bandmate Louis Tomlinson could face fines of thousands of euro if they are caught using or promoting illegal drugs during the concert in the Philippines.

The country’s Bureau of Immigration said the pair had been asked to post bonds of more than €2,800 each which will be forfeited if they fall foul of the regulations.

Both men featured in a video, widely reported on last year, in which they were shown allegedly smoking cannabis and joking about drug use.