Don’t make Zayn Malik’s girlfriend the seguinte Yoko Ono 

We no longer check to see whether Telegraph.co.uk displays properly in Internet Explorer version 6 or earlier.

To see our content at its best we recommend upgrading if you wish to continue using IE or using another browser such as Firefox, Safari or Google Chrome.

Don’t make Zayn Malik’s girlfriend the next Yoko Ono

Zayn Malik walk-out: Devastated One Direction fans are aiming some of their ire at Perrie Edwards. We shouldn’t let history repeat itself, writes Emma Barnett

Perrie Edwards of Little Mix and former One Direction star Zayn Malik Photo: PA

Zayn Malik of One Direction arrives at Sydney International Airport on February 6, 2015 Photo: Rex Features

Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Harry Styles and Liam Payne arriving for the World Premiere of One Direction: This Is Us, at the Empire Leicester Square, London Photo: IAN WEST/PA

The wrongly-placed and horribly unfair pillorying of Yoko Ono has haunted her into her eighties.

Woman’s Hour as the octogenarian promoted her latest show with her son Sean Lennon.

Ono was sweet, thoughtful and amazingly anything but bitter about the years of hate she endured for being falsely branded as the ‘woman who broke up the Beatles’ through her marriages to John Lennon. Hurt, yes. Bitter, no.

However, she did admit that being the wife of a Beatle was “the most difficult thing to be”; saying that it was tougher than being a politician’s spouse as the position in society was “endless”.

I was reminded of our conversation this morning when I read that some of One Direction’s distraught fans, mourning of the walk-out of Zayn Malik, are blaming his decision to leave the band on his fiancée Perrie Edwards.

One fangirl took to Twitter saying: “Perrie’s the modern-day Yoko…I can’t believe this.”

Now I know very little about Perrie – other than she’s a young woman (21), enjoying significant pop success of her own in her band Little Mix, who happens to be in love with and engaged to a man following the same career route. I also know that Malik had some photos of him taken holding hands with a girl in Thailand who wasn’t Edwards. He is now reportedly trying to save his relationship with his fiancée. Those are the limited facts at our disposal.

When I interviewed Ono in 2013 - it was only a year earlier that Paul McCartney had come out and said he didn’t blame her for the break-up of the Beatles.

It had taken the best part of 40 years for her late husband’s bandmate to publicly speak the truth. Ono told me of her gratitude: “Yes I think he [Paul] was very sweet to say that and probably needed courage to say that and couldn’t say it until now….Paul and I know each year for 30 years – people liked the idea that we were fighting like crazy in a boxing ring – but that wasn’t the case.”

Ono admitted that the Beatle fans just wanted to her be a quiet wife, rather than carrying on with her music making and activism. “People just wanted me to die or to shut up,” she confided brightly, with a shaky quiver in her voice. She also explained how her own career suffered immeasurably once she became an item with Lennon.

The woman telling me this not only had to endure the hatred of millions of female fans the world over when the Beatles split, she also had to deal with the fact that the love of her life was murdered in broad daylight in New York’s Central Park.

Fast forward to 2015 to the splintering of the biggest British boy band since the Beatles and female fans are up to their old tricks: shaming their idols’ girlfriends. This time they have their own platform in Twitter and can quickly form a twitchmob armed with digital twitchforks.

One Direction are the biggest British boy band since the Beatles

So before the mob turns totally feral I say this: all we know for sure is that Malik has left 1D for now in a bid to try and live a “normal life”.

Here’s his statement: “My life with One Direction has been more than I could ever have imagined. But, after five years, I feel like it is now the right time for me to leave the band. I\'d like to apologise to the fans if I\'ve let anyone down, but I have to do what feels right in my heart.

“I am leaving because I want to be a normal 22-year-old who is able to relax and have some private time out of the spotlight. I know I have four friends for life in Louis, Liam, Harry and Niall. I know they will continue to be the best band in the world.”

• Zayn Malik: The dark truth about the #Cut4Zayn trend

• Fans take to Twitter to share their grief

• Sad songs say so much: Best break-up albums

• Weed bond: One Direction get drug warning

But even if his decision does have something to do with his love for Perrie Edwards, it’s still not ‘her fault’. He is a man perfectly capable of making up his own mind. So let’s not allow history to repeat itself, especially when women have made so many leaps and bounds forward in the quest to be treated equally to men.

Yoko Ono was never to blame for the Beatles’ split – and yet female fans around the globe painted her as that \'evil weird woman forevermore\'. Only now in her eighties, is she coming out of that horrible shame-filled shadow.

One Directioners can and will mourn – but please leave blameless Perrie Edwards out of it.

There was only one person who could have stopped Jeremy Clarkson from attacking his producer and Beverley Turner reckons she\'s also a dab hand with a toilet brush

Out of a total £26 billion garnered by the Government in direct taxes and cuts to social spending, a staggering £22 billion came from women\'s pockets, according to new analysis

Date with a Page 3 girl? Here\'s what\'s really on offer

A Daily Star advert, offering a date with a Page 3 model as a \'prize\', has been banned by the advertising watchdog. Rebecca Reid explains why a visit from \'one of our babes\' isn\'t all it seems

Zayn Malik: Dark truth about #Cut4Zayn trend

Zayn Malik\'s decision to leave One Direction has sparked a worrying Twitter trend encouraging fans to self-harm. But Radhika Sanghani says it might not be what it seems

Celia Walden notices a strain on a friend\'s marriage now that foie gras is back on Californian menus

Your phone is ruining your life. We all need a digital sabbath

It\'s rather ironic that as dot com millionaire Martha Lane Fox pushes for everyone to get online that the digerati have finally started to log off. It\'s about time, writes Emma Barnett

Girls abandon outdoor sports because \'it\'s really cold\'

A new report looking into why young girls drop out of sports has found they don\'t like the cold and face negative stereotypes from boys who think they can\'t play football

Slow down the action and more skinny dipping, please, Poldark!

From their first kiss to marriage in under five minutes, the turbo-charged romance between Demelza and Ross is cheating viewers

"I’d love TOWIE to do the Only Way is Tudor and what about Masterchef does Rationing, wouldn’t that be fun?"

Historian Kate Williams, a panellist on the BBC\'s high-brow, new quiz, Quizeum, talks trash TV, Horrible Histories - and that spat with David Starkey

Who would want to spend their days catching rats, asks Lucy Jones

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

Girls at single-sex schools aren\'t that innocent

Latest and breaking stories from the United States

The very best of Goodwood\'s Moving Motor Show in pictures