Former MTV presenter Laura Whitmore has opened up about the persistent rumours that have linked her romantically to One Direction's Niall Horan.

The blonde beauty (pictured second from left next to Horan) told Yahoo! OMG that they have never been anything more than just friends and their age gap means she views him more as a little brother than potential date:

"There's a lot of us who live in North London from Ireland, and when we go out suddenly people put us together! Even thought I'm 27 and he's 19!"

"He's like a little brother, he's a lovely, down to earth guy who is just living the dream right now."

She also joked that when the speculation began she was concerned it would be another Caroline Flack
situation so took to Twitter to diffuse it before it spread: "I thought it was Caroline Flack all over again! No, it was just rididculous... I ended up putting a tweet up saying 'relax fans'."

Watch Whitmore interview One Direction at the 2013 BRIT Awards here: