Zayn Malik has been dropped by his manager ahead of the release of his second album.

Sarah Stennett, the co-founder of First Access Entertainment, has cut all ties with the former One Direction star after working with the singer since he left the boy band in 2015.

She confirmed they’d gone their separate ways, telling Variety: “Sometimes in life you have to make extremely difficult decisions to effect positive change for everyone.”

Whilst Zayn’s former 1D bandmates Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson all hit the promotional trail to plug their solo releases, Zayn’s debut album campaign was notable by his absence.

The 25-year-old pulled out of several high profile events during the album campaign, citing his struggles with anxiety.

He has just released his second single, ‘Let Me’, from his forthcoming second album, which is due out in June.

Earlier this week he told Radio 1 Breakfast host Nick Grimshaw that he has been “working on personal issues”, admitting he wasn’t as “prominent” as he wanted to be around the release of his first album.

He said: “I think my confidence has grown. The last year and a half I’ve been working on a lot of personal issues.

“I didn’t know what was going on for a while.I was just putting out a record and not really being as prominent as I wanted to be.”

He added: “But this time around I feel like I am more confident and I really believe in what’s going on, so I want to convey that to my fans.”