Zayn Malik has delivered a bombshell confession about his past with Gigi Hadid, admitting he no longer believes he was ever truly "in love" with her, despite their six year on off relationship and the birth of their daughter.
The 33 year old singer dated the 30 year old supermodel for years, and the pair welcomed daughter Khai in 2020 before ending their relationship in 2021.
Though their romance once appeared intense and enduring, Zayn had already stunned fans in 2024 during an appearance on the Zach Sang Show when he claimed he had never "truly been in love".
Now, speaking on the Call Her Daddy podcast, he reinforced that claim, explaining that while he believed at the time that he was in love, maturity has changed his perspective.
Reflecting on the relationship, he said: "My understanding of love is always developing."
"At that moment in time, I might have thought it was love, but as I’ve got older, I’ve realized maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was lust. Maybe it was this. Maybe it was that. I don’t feel like it was love."
Despite the revelation, Zayn stressed that his feelings for Gigi remain strong in a different way. He emphasized that she will always matter deeply to him because she is the mother of his child.
"To be fair, just to have this on the record, I will always love G, because she is the reason my child is on this Earth and I have the utmost respect for her," he insisted.
"I will always love her, but I don’t know if I was in love with her. I do love her a crazy amount, but no, I don’t think I was in love with her at that point. Otherwise I would have been a better version of myself."
Zayn also made it clear that he has no intention of stepping back into the spotlight with another high profile partner. The former One Direction star, who was previously engaged to Little Mix singer Perrie Edwards from 2012 to 2015, said public romances simply do not suit him.
"I’m not looking for a public relationship again, and just out of experience, no offence to anybody that I have been in public relationships with before."
"I’ve just learned from it that it don’t work for me. I’m quite a private person. I don’t really strive for people’s approval or attention. So the relationship should really be between me and that person."
"And I think that personality type, somebody who doesn’t want to do that, would be more suited to me."
He admitted that in his younger years, relationships often became turbulent due to his own behavior.
"I tended to get in trouble in relationships, because I was young, did certain things, spoke to other females when I shouldn’t have been. You live and learn from it, but this way, there’s no guilt."
Now single, Zayn described the experience as liberating rather than lonely.
"I don’t find being alone scary," he declared. "No disrespect to all the past relationships I’ve been in. No disrespect at all, it was freeing."
"I am that type of person who runs on my own clock, answers to myself. So, it was so freeing to me. I could just do things, make plans. Sleep until any time I want."
While Zayn is embracing independence, Gigi has also moved forward. Last year, she shared rare insight into their co parenting dynamic during an interview with Vogue.
"Zayn and I do our custody schedules months in advance", she revealed. "That doesn't mean that it doesn't change here and there, but we help each other out and have each other's backs."
She explained that their current relationship is grounded in mutual respect and shared commitment to their daughter.
"There is the hard part of the world knowing this much, and thinking they know everything. And at the end of the day, we're not interested in giving everyone our whole story."
"What we are interested in is raising our daughter together. With so much respect for each other, and not just as co-parents, but what we've been through together."
Their split followed a reported altercation between Zayn and Gigi’s mother, Yolanda Hadid, after which he received 360 day probation and was ordered to complete anger management and domestic violence programs.
Since then, Gigi has sparked a new romance with Oscar nominated actor Bradley Cooper. The pair met at a children’s party in October 2023, and in December sources claimed that Cooper had sought the blessing of both his and Gigi’s mothers ahead of a potential proposal later this year.
Zayn’s candid remarks have now reignited debate over whether such deeply personal admissions belong on global platforms, especially when they reopen chapters many believed were long closed.