Liam Payne thinks and he believes he is too young to be engaged to girlfriend Sophia Smith.

The One Direction member also thinks that his girlfriend should also do the things that is passionate about before settling down.

"We have talked about marriage, but 22 seems a bit young for us," he said in an interview with Attitude magazine. "Sophia needs to go off and do what she wants to do. I don't want her to be one of those stay-at-home girlfriends who doesn't really do much."

He continued, "Sophia has to live her own life. She can't just see me do what I do and follow me around. She has to be successful in her own right and do her things. And I know she will."

Like all love stories, One Direction member Liam Payne has a good tale to tell his grandkids about girlfriend Sophia Smith.

It turned out that he was with someone else and Sophia Smith saw them both, "and she never spoke to me again."

"But I always thought about her, about what could have been," he said.

"When I was single again, I met her at my mate's party," Liam Payne recounted. "I didn't say too much to her because I was too scared to after messing things up, but we finally got talking and the rest is history. It really is one [of] those childhood sweetheart stories"

One Direction member Liam Payne and long-time girlfriend Sophia Smith were rumored to be engaged last year after they were snapped stepping out of Tiffany & Co. store in New York City on Dec. 19.

Liam Payne and Sophia Smith have been dating since 2013 when they met in high school.

"Liam Payne is more slippery than a snake habitat these days and after stoking the internet rumours that he and girlfriend Sophia Smith are engaged, One Direction's reps have now denied that there is, in fact, a wedding on the cards for the happy couple," said Sugarscape back in July.