United Kingdom, Aug. 19 -- Perrie Edwards was "embarrassed" when she broke up with Zayn Malik.

The 32-year-old singer dated the former One Direction hunk from 2011 to 2015 and he was her first real love, so not only was she left devastated when their engagement ended, her heartbreak felt even worse because of the scrutiny the news brought.

She recalled on the We Need to Talk podcast: "Tt was just a lot. . It was too much. It was just everywhere. It followed me like a bad smell...

"I felt embarrassed. I felt weird. Really sad. Going through all these emotions and going through it with everyone staring at me was like, it was mortifying."

Perrie met Zayn - who went on to have daughter Khai, four, with Gigi Hadid - when she was competing ...