Perrie Edwards says her "heart hurts" for Liam Payne's ex-girlfriend Cheryl and their son Bear

Speaking on Fearne Cotton's 'Happy Place' podcast, Perrie shared: "I think it just feels weird. It's just so sad and heartbreaking and my heart hurts for his family and friends, Cheryl, his little boy.

"It's devastating I can't imagine how they must be feeling now. I didn't think it was real when I read it, it's in the air and everyone can feel it."

She went on to add: "Me and the Little Mix girls were messaging [after news of Liam's death broke] and Leigh-Anne [Pinnock] just said it feels very close to home.

"Our careers were very aligned, we had a close relationship with them. It's honestly so sad, it made my body feel so weird when I saw the headline."

Liam died aged 31 after plunging from a balcony at a hotel in Buenos Aires on October 16. He became a dad to Bear back in 2017 during his two-year romance with Girls Aloud star and former 'The X Factor' judge Cheryl.

Later in the podcast, Perrie went on to discuss the pitfalls of fame and insisted more needs to be done to look after young people and tackle online trolling.

She said: "here are no consequences for people's comments online. People are not looked after enough in this industry, people are put on a pedestal.

"They are treated like a god and then everyone jumps on this bandwagon of like 'let's tear them down'. But people are human. Can we make rules with social media?

"I can't bear it - I try to not look as I can go into a hole of just looking at negative comments. Success is good but fame is different - there is a dark side to it.

"It's intense. I bring my therapist to work with me sometimes as I can't cope with the panic attacks sometimes."