Little Mix's Perrie Edwards has admitted she was embarrassed by pictures of her kissing Bradford's One Direction star Zayn Malik.

The X Factor girlband star and the 1D heartthrob, who hails from East Bowling, have gone public with their relationship after they were pictured kissing goodbye as he prepared to fly to the US with the rest of the band.

And Perrie, 18, tried to brush off her blushes as she played matchmaker to single bandmate Leigh-Anne Pinnock.

Perrie said: "Well to be fair I didn't like the photo because I looked rank, so I'm a bit gutted that they catch you off guard. Obviously everyone knows that me and Zayn are together and I'm really happy.

"But I'm not going to get into detail and talk about it too much - but Leigh-Anne's single you can hook her up!"

Former Tong High School student Zayn, 19, and Perrie reportedly shared a kiss backstage when the boyband appeared on The X Factor in December and began dating in February.

Leigh-Anne said she is looking for a Justin Bieber lookalike to date.

She laughed: "I'd like to go out with Justin Bieber - someone like that - hook me up!

"Oh yeah, he's with Selena [Gomez] isn't he.

"I'm single and I'm happy so if the right one comes along, the right one comes along."