Niall Horan of One Direction has been linked romantically to many women since his rise to fame, including last year's alleged romance with singer Demi Lovato. Now his rumored girlfriend has stepped forward to hint that she may be dating the blonde star, according to Yahoo! UK.
"It's a secret really," Irish model Zoe Whelan said coyly to the Irish Herald when asked about her possible relationship with Horan. This could mean several things. Either Whelan is in fact Horan's girlfriend and the two are keeping it on the down-low, or she's not dating him but enjoying providing more fodder to gossip magazines and the celebrity rumor mill. Her subtle answer leaves the possibility open, and the model did admit she was a lukewarm fan of One Direction.
"I love listening to music," she said. "And I do like their songs."
Whelan is known to be a close friend of the Horan family, and attended the wedding of Niall's older brother Gregg this March.
Having been linked to the One Direction heartthrob, Whelan admitted the publicity has been good and bad for her career. Good in the sense that the aspiring model has had positive reactions to her work, and bad that some crazed 1D fans have sent her death threats.
"A lot of girls have said nice things. But you get nasty and mean comments. I've had a few death threats which is really scary," Whelan said. "I just ignore them; I try not to pay them any attention."
In March, The Sun claimed that Whelan and Nolan were involved in a secret affair.
"Niall has been secretly seeing Zoe for a couple of months after he met her backstage," an insider revealed to the British newspaper. "She's a Dubliner but is based in London to work on her modelling career. Zoe's travelled all over the UK to meet up with Niall on the band's tour."
The source also claimed that Horan took Whelan to his brother's wedding so she could meet him.
"The biggest sign he's really serious about her is that he introduced her to his whole family at his brother's wedding," claimed the source. "Zoe's the first girlfriend Niall has brought back to his hometown of Mullingar since making it big, so it was a big deal and the talk of his family at the wedding."
