Former Westlife star Brian McFadden was bombarded with death threats from One Direction fans after suggesting Niall Horan would be the first to quit the group.

The Irish singer was asked about the boyband in a recent interview with Britain's Real Radio Yorkshire and MCFadden singled out Horan when the host urged him to pick which singer he thought would be the first to launch a solo career.

MCFadden now reveals the comment sparked a backlash from the group's fans and he received a slew of threatening messages via Twitter.com.

He says, "I wouldn't wanna (sic) f**k with their fans. I was asked who I thought would be the first to leave One Direction on the radio - I didn't know (who to choose), but they (the hosts) said to pick one, so I said Niall because I'm Irish, he's Irish, and he has that glint in his eye. Then I get these Twitter comments from nut jobs (sic) like, 'Go f**king kill yourself'. I'm like, 'Calm down.' They're f**king nuts... It's different now because of Twitter - you can see how crazy people are."