One Direction's Zayn 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 coming home 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.

Yesterday the singer, whose fiancee is a member of girl band Little Mix, told his 14.1 million Twitter followers: "I'm 22 years old... I love a girl named Perrie Edwards. And there's a lot of jealous f***s in this world I'm sorry for what it looks like x"

Sunday Mirror Showbiz columnist Simon Boyle told ITV News: "There's an awful lot of pressure and a lot of spotlight on these guys, maybe until all the facts are out there we should give them the benefit of the doubt."

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

Earlier today, it was reported that Malik and bandmate Louis Tomlinson had been asked by the Philippines Bureau of Immigration to post bonds of more than £3,000 each which will be forfeited if they are caught using or promoting illegal drugs.

Both men appeared in a video last year in which they were shown allegedly smoking cannabis and joking about drug use.