Fans were left in despair when Zayn Malik decided to quit the band last March, with some of them blaming his fiancée, "Little Mix" singer Perrie Edwards, for his departure even going as far as branding her as the Yoko Ono of today's times.

Now, Malik's former bandmate Liam Payne has broken his silence on the matter, admitting that Malik did leave the band for his fiancée, but added that he and his bandmates understood his decision and that there were no hard feelings between them and their "brother," the Daily Mirror reported.

Speaking to hosts Dave Berry and Lisa Snowdon in a radio interview on Capital FM, he said: "Sometimes you have to move on because you're not enjoying what you're doing as much as you used to. He wanted to spend time with his family and his missus. That's cool with us."

He then went on to say: "Yeah, of course he had to do what he had to do. We are still great mates. I know it's difficult for people to see. It's like any other job sometimes - you just have to move on. We are going to just keep going, keep flying the flag."

Moments after Malik announced his departure, fans immediately lashed out at Edwards, with one fan saying that she is the "modern day Yoko Ono." Yoko Ono was the widow of John Lennon, and was notoriously accused of being responsible of the disbandment of the Beatles.