MUMBAI: One Direction's Liam Payne has said his former bandmate Zayn Malik left the British boyband because of his relationship with Perrie Edwards.

"He wanted to spend time with his family and his missus. That's cool with us," Payne said on a radio show, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

At the time of his departure, Malik said he was leaving to lead a "normal" life, but was surrounded by rumours he had cheated on his fiancee Edwards at the time, after he was photographed holding hands with another woman in a Thai nightclub.

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

"Sometimes you have to move on because you're not enjoying what you're doing as much as you used to," he said.