Just a week ago, the so-called "fans" of British-Irish boy band sent One Direction's Liam Payne's girlfriend (now ex) death threats through Twitter and is believed the abuse has been one of the reasons why the couple broke up.

When the breakup became public, Danielle unfollowed 1D fan accounts—despite the sources saying the abuse has nothing to do with their split.

On the other hand, people that are close to One Direction member said that the breakup was all because of the singer's hectic and demanding time.

"They have split in the last few days because it has been more and more difficult to keep the relationship going with Liam spending more and more time away.

"He has hardly been able to see Danielle in recent months and the band have a world tour next year so it was only going to get harder.

"They ended things but Liam hopes they have left on good terms. She was the first real love of his life,” a friend of Liam stated.

Danielle, 24, has been getting abuse from obsessive One Direction fans via Twitter which, obviously, led to death threats (the same thing which happened to Little Mix's Perrie Edwards, 1D's Zayn Malik's girlfriend). And just last week, one fan sent her another death threat.

Liam responded by blocking the fan and angrily saying he would "take it further" if anything more was said.

"To tweet someone telling them to 'go die' is disgusting," Danielle tweeted in April before the split. "I don't care if you hate me but keep it to yourself rather than tweeting me."

Just a look back—Liam, now 19, met Danielle on The X Factor two years ago where she was a backup dancer.

Danielle still follows Liam and his bandmates on Twitter.