'User' object has no attribute 'profile' django profile update problem

i am new to django and currently learning and i have encountered a problem that i just cant seem to solve.

from django.shortcuts import render, redirect
from django.contrib import messages
from .forms import UserRegisterForm, UserUpdateForm, ProfileUpdateForm
from django.contrib.auth.decorators import login_required


def register(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        form = UserRegisterForm(request.POST)
        if form.is_valid():
            form.save()
            username = form.cleaned_data.get('username')
            messages.success(request, f'Account Successfully created for {username}!')
            return redirect('login')
    else:
        form = UserRegisterForm()
    return render(request, 'users/register.html', {'form': form})

@login_required()
def profile(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        u_form = UserUpdateForm(request.POST, instance=request.user)
        p_form = ProfileUpdateForm(request.POST, request.FILES, instance=request.user.profile)

        if u_form.is_valid() and p_form.is_valid():
            u_form.save()
            p_form.save()
            messages.success(request, f'Your account has been updated!')
            return redirect('profile')
    else:
        u_form = UserUpdateForm(instance=request.user)
        p_form = ProfileUpdateForm()

    context = {
        'u_form': u_form,
        'p_form': p_form
    }
    return render(request, 'users/profile.html',context)

in this code, in the

else:
        u_form = UserUpdateForm(instance=request.user)
        p_form = ProfileUpdateForm()

part, whenever i add instance in the p_form as p_form = ProfileUpdateForm( instance=request.user.profile)

it gives this error in browser:

AttributeError at /profile/
'User' object has no attribute 'profile'
Request Method: GET
Request URL:    http://127.0.0.1:8000/profile/
Django Version: 5.2.1
Exception Type: AttributeError
Exception Value:    
'User' object has no attribute 'profile'
Exception Location: D:\Documents\pycharm\venv\Lib\site-packages\django\utils\functional.py, line 253, in inner
Raised during:  users.views.profile

and yes, the change in the p_form is what creates this error when going into /profile. PLS HELP

heres my models.py:

from django.contrib.auth.models import User
from django.db import models

class UserProfile(models.Model):
    user = models.OneToOneField(User, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
    pf_image = models.ImageField(default='default.jpg',upload_to='profile_pics/', null=True, blank=True)

    def __str__(self):
        return f'{self.user.username}Profile'

and heres my signals.py:

from django.db.models.signals import post_save
from django.contrib.auth.models import User
from django.dispatch import receiver
from .models import UserProfile

@receiver(post_save, sender=User)
def create_profile(sender, instance, created, **kwargs):
    if created:
        UserProfile.objects.create(user=instance)

@receiver(post_save, sender=User)
def save_profile(sender, instance, **kwargs):
    instance.UserProfile.save()

@login_required
def profile(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        u_form = UserUpdateForm(
            request.POST, request.FILES, instance=request.user, prefix='user'
        )
        p_form = ProfileUpdateForm(
            request.POST,
            request.FILES,
            instance=request.user.userprofile,
            prefix='profile',
        )

        if u_form.is_valid() and p_form.is_valid():
            u_form.save()
            p_form.save()
            messages.success(request, f'Your account has been updated!')
            return redirect('profile')
    else:
        u_form = UserUpdateForm(instance=request.user, prefix='user')
        p_form = ProfileUpdateForm(
            instance=request.user.userprofile, prefix='profile'
        )

    context = {'u_form': u_form, 'p_form': p_form}
    return render(request, 'users/profile.html', context)