Zayn Malik talks life since One Direction in his first interview in years

NEW YORK – After a hiatus from public life and interviews, Zayn Malik, the former One Direction member, appeared on a podcast that aired last Wednesday.

In his first interview in years, he talked about his decision to leave the quintet, what life has been like since then and his new single.

“There were great experiences, I had great times with them, but we’d just run our course,” he said of his time in the band on the Call Her Daddy podcast, hosted by Alex Cooper.

Malik was the first to leave One Direction in 2015, after the group had steadily put out chart-topping songs such as What Makes You Beautiful, Story Of My Life and Best Song Ever.

The boy band, assembled through the British musical competition show The X Factor (2004 to 2018), were together for about six years and developed a feverish following among its young fans.

One Direction continued to make music after Malik’s departure, but the group officially disbanded in 2016.

Malik put out his debut solo single Pillowtalk that same year.

During the interview, he told Cooper that around the time of his departure, the bandmates were beginning to clash.

“We’d been together every day for five years and we’d got sick of each other, if we’re being completely honest,” Malik, 30, said. “I look back on it now in a much fonder light than I would’ve as I’d just left.”

He began to see signs that it might be time to go and that others might be doing the same, he said, and he wanted to “get ahead of the curve” and be the first to release his own record.

“I don’t want to go into too much detail, but there was a lot of politics going on. People were doing certain things. Some people didn’t want to sign contracts, so I knew something was happening,” he said.

Cooper also broached the topic of a reported confrontation between Malik and Yolanda Hadid, mother of his former girlfriend, supermodel Gigi Hadid, 28, with whom he shares a daughter, Khai, asking about his decision to largely remain silent on the issue.

In response, Malik said he believed that the issue should stay within the family.

“I just keep to myself. I knew what the situation was, I knew what happened and the people involved knew what happened too,” Malik said. “I just didn’t want to bring attention to anything.”

In recent years, he has lived a much quieter life in suburban Pennsylvania, he said.

He added that he was happy to get away from the bustle of New York City, enjoying a life mostly free from paparazzi and spending many of his days in the studio, writing and making music.

Malik enjoyed spending time with his cats, dogs, turtles and chickens. He noted that he got too attached to one chicken that died and decided to stop naming them.

Being out of the public eye also allows for Khai, two, to live a more private life, should she choose to do so, he said.

“I’m just trying to give her an option,” Malik said. “If she wants to be away from it, she can be out here.”

The singer said there was a constant stream of fans following One Direction around when the band were together.

He recalled one day, before the band had ever released a single, when fans hid in rubbish bins outside a studio in Sweden waiting for the performers to emerge, then popped out and grabbed at them.

“I think I had a mini heart attack,” he said jokingly.

One Direction’s hit song What Makes You Beautiful was on Billboard’s Hot 100 list for 34 weeks, peaking at No. 4 in 2012.

In 2013, Story Of My Life had similar staying power, with 32 weeks, and peaked at No. 6.

Best Song Ever, however, climbed the highest. It reached the No. 2 spot that same year and spent 21 weeks on the chart.

The group held four world tours, performing in North America, Asia, Europe and South America, and sometimes sold out shows in minutes. NYTIMES