Zayn Malik quit One Direction 'due to tour burnout'

Zayn Malik quit One Direction because of burnout, according to one of the band's main songwriters.

Jamie Scott has rubbished speculation the 22-year-old singer walked away from the chart-topping group because of increasingly strained relations with his fellow band-mates Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne - and has instead insisted their tiring touring schedule was why he chose to leave the group.

Jamie told the Sunday Mirror newspaper: "Zayn went because he'd had enough. Have you ever been on the road for four years? These guys aren't at home.

"There is no way the same thing is going to run through all five guys, that they're all going to want to be on the road so much together. Eventually he got to a point where he'd had enough.

"It was, 'OK, I don't want to be in this band any more'. It was that simple, it was human instinct kicking in. People want it to be complicated and have secret reasons but that is what it was."

This comes shortly after Zayn's close friend Naughty Boy insisted there's no "bad blood" between the boys.

He told BANG Showbiz: "I don't think there's any real bad blood, especially from this side. I just want people to support him and prepare for his future. I think people just need to respect his reasons for leaving.

"Right now it's down time for Zayn but I think there is a journey for him, I think for any kind of band there has to be a destiny for each of them. Nothing lasts forever."