Zayn Malik opens up on leaving One Direction and Yolanda Hadid incident

By India Today Lifestyle DeskZayn Malik, in his first interview in almost six years, opened up about leaving the immensely popular One Direction band and co-parenting his daughter Khai with model Gigi Hadid.

The singer also broke his silence on his highly-publicized confrontation with Gigi’s mother Yolanda Hadid, which eventually led him to separate from his supermodel girlfriend.

On leaving One Direction:

Talking about leaving One Direction with Alex Cooper on the podcast Call Her Daddy, the singer said that he knew it was time to go. “Look I don’t want to go into too much detail, but there was a lot of politics going on, certain people were doing certain things, certain people didn’t want to sign contracts, so I knew something was happening,” he said.

“There were obviously underlying issues, like within our friendships, too. We’ve been together every day for five years, and we got sick of each other, if I’m being completely honest. So we were close,” he continued, while adding that he can now look back at the memories and experiences they shared in a “much fonder light”.

The Pillow Talk singer further shared that even his mother didn’t know that he was planning to leave the band.

Zayn Malik was a part of the band One Direction, along with Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson. He departed from the band in 2015. He was the first to leave One Direction to strike out as a solo artist.

On Yolanda Hadid incident:

Addressing his violent confrontation with Yolanda, which saw him charged with four counts of harassment, Zayn said that he believes he dealt with the situation “in the best way” and described the incident as “family issues”.

The former One Direction singer was accused of grabbing Yolanda Hadid and shoving her against a dresser, according to court documents. Malik engaged in “continuous cursing” at Yolanda Hadid, the documents said, calling her an “f——— Dutch s—” and telling her to stay away from his daughter.

“I knew what the situation was and I knew what happened and the people involve know what happened and that’s all that matters,” Zaid said in the new podcast. “I didn’t want to bring attention and I didn’t want to get a negative back and forth with her any sort of narrative for my daughter to eventually read it,” he added.

“I believe I dealt with it in the best way and that’s all that needs to be said. It was a lot of negativity,” the singer told podcast host Alex.

On daughter Khai:

Zayn Malik and Gigi Hadid, who dated on and off before finally calling it quits after his fight with Yolanda in 2021, have a daughter together – Khai. They welcomed her in September 2020.

“Since I’ve had my daughter, the main thing in my mind is trying to be a good example to her,” Zayn told Alex. “That’s why I’m even doing this interview, you know? I used to get a lot of anxiety around having a conversation like this. And I want her to be able to look at me and be like, ‘My dad’s doing this,'” Zayn said during the show.

Zayn Malik’s new single Love Like This will release on July 21.