'Can't Say No' hitmaker Conor Maynard has given his opinion on Zayn Malik's departure from One Direction and confessed that he feels it was inevitable. 

Maynard spoke to Capital FM back in March and correctly picked Malik as the first member of the boyband to go solo, telling the radio station that the star was "preparing for" a solo career. 

He has since revealed to Now magazine that he completely understands Malik's decision to quit the band and thinks it must have taken a lot of integrity and strength to walk away from 1D because they're still incredibly successful:

"He was at the studio with Naughty Boy, working on new music. He seemed very quiet but really nice. It was hard to tell how he was feeling. Even though it was the elephant in the room, I didn't ask him about what's happened."

"I think him leaving One Direction had to happen at some point. When he left they were absolutely killing it - it's not like they're on a downward spiral, so it shows he wasn't in it for the money. It might have felt like the time was up on that era of his life. It must've been really stressful for him. It's sad because already some fans have turned against them, which is shocking - they're meant to have the strongest fan base in the world."

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Watch Maynard covering Sia's 'Elastic Heart' here: