Niall Horan hits back at Katy Perry: She's 'embarrassed me in front of the whole world'

Niall Horan has claimed Katy Perry "embarrassed" him "in front of the whole world" over claims he tried to flirt with her.

The 23-year-old singer was left red-faced when the Bon Appetite hitmaker revealed he is "always" trying to get her phone number despite their nine-year age gap.

She said: "I see him around all the time, he's always trying to like get my number to like maybe flirt with me but I'm like 'I could babysit you I'm like your mum!'"

And the Slow Hands hitmaker says his natural "Irish charm" may have made his harmless invitation of friendship seem like more than it was, and joked he feels "embarrassed" by the whole situation.

Speaking to Australia's Daily Telegraph newspaper, Niall said: I don't know if it's the accent or the way we put things but I guess that stigma of Irish charm follows you around a bit, which is not a bad thing really. 

Katy Perry and Niall Horan kiss on stage at the 2012 MTV VMAs. Photo / Getty 

"I don't know what [Katy's] talking about, by the way. I texted a mutual friend who works on her team saying, 'I heard you guys are going to be down in Australia'. Katy has taken that and run with it and embarrassed me in front of the whole world."

The comments come after the One Direction hunk jokingly urged the Chained To The Rhythm singer to "stop being mean" to him. 

He said: "Katy, please stop being mean to me! She is just finding any excuse to just patronise me and go around spreading rumours about me. I just want to be her friend."

Meanwhile, Katy has fueled the feud by branding Niall as a "stage five clinger".

The 32-year-old has taken to Instagram to share a video of Niall with her backstage at The Voice Australia.

In the short clip, Katy said: "You're following me!"

To which Niall replied: "I am - everywhere."

On the video, Katy wrote: "@niallhoran stage 5 clinger (sic)"

A post shared by Katy Perry Instagram story (@katyperry_insta_story) on Jul 2, 2017 at 8:31am PDT

Katy previously likened Niall's joke crush to The Graduate.

She said recently: "He wants to go out on a date. Have you ever seen the movie The Graduate? That's kinda what this feels like ... I could be his mum!"

Appearing earlier in the week, Niall says that Katy was "patronising" him.

He said: "Katy, please stop being mean to me! She is just finding any excuse to just patronise me and go around spreading rumours about me. I just want to be her friend."

- Bang! Showbiz