Tulisa has revealed that she advised Perrie Edwards to initially play hard-to-get with Zayn Malik.

The ‘Young’ singer, who mentored winners Little Mix in the 2011 series, told 4Music’s The Crush that she played a big part in the 19-year-old’s budding romance with the One Direction star:

"I was involved in that from the start... I was the first person that she came to and was like 'Zayn's, you know...' so I was like 'RIGHT, this is what you need to do, don't text him back, wait!'"

The talent show judge, who releases second solo single, 'Live It Up,' next week, also added that Zayn regularly called Perrie late at night:

"She was like, 'He's asked me to come round his house’ and I was like 'What time is it? NO. No. It's too late!'"