Little Mix's Perrie Edwards has reportedly received death threats from jealous One Direction fans following her engagement to Zayn Malik this week.

The couple met on the set of ITV's X Factor in 2011 when One Direction performed on the show.

And the pair were certainly gushing over each other on Twitter post-engagement.

Zayn tweeted: "Never been more happy in my life ! Thank you to everyone that has been so lovely about my engagement to my beautiful fiancé ! Big love z X"

This was quickly followed up by an equally fawning reply from Perrie via the Little Mix Twitter account.

"Iv also never felt so happy! :) Thank you everyone for being so kind and supportive! Im a lucky girl! xD I Love you all!" she tweeted.

She was also more than happy to show off the giant three-stone diamond engagement ring.

While most fans are happy for the couple, Daily Star reports that a few Twitter users sent hateful messages instead.  

It quoted one Twitter user as writing: "if zerrie is engaged i wILL F****** KILL THAT C***".

"Perrie is gonna die soon. Bitch won't be walking down the isle with my man."

And yet another added, "ZAYN CANT MARRY A BITCH LIKE YOU PERRIE!!!!!! SL*T!! WH*RE!! I'LL KILL YOU!!!"

One Directioner Liam Payne was also forced to defend his new girlfriend Sophia Smith on Twitter.

He wrote: "Always sad to get on here to read horrible stuff about someone you care about. There is that old saying tho if you ain't got s**t nice to say then f**k you."

Ellie Goulding has left fans wondering if she is dating One Directioner Niall Horan. The Mirror suggested the link after they were seen getting friendly at the V Festival but when the newspaper put the question to her she dodged it with a laugh, saying: "Oh God, I knew this was coming! I just can't talk about Niall. I won't ever talk about my love life any more because it's always then gone wrong when I have in the past."

Since the rumour mill swung into motion on whether they are an item, the 26-year-old Goulding has also received a death threat from an angry 1D fan.

"I will say this, I've definitely had some 'interesting' tweets since the story came out," the singer told the Mirror. "Thankfully I'm able to take it all with a pinch of salt because I've been told to be that way.