Later, lads! Zayn Malik‘s fallout with his former One Direction bandmates is bigger than ever. The singer revealed in a new interview with Billboard magazine that he’s no longer close with Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson.
“The truth of it is you can think one thing about a situation and the total opposite can happen. I had every intention of remaining friends with everybody, but I guess certain phone numbers have changed and I haven’t received calls from a lot of people,” Malik, 22, said. “I’ve reached out to a few of them and not got a reply. Certain people have pride issues, but it’s stuff you overcome in time.”
As previously reported, Malik has been working on his solo career since leaving the band in March 2015. He’s also been very vocal as to why he called it quits after five years.
“[The band and I] weren’t allowed to say certain things, or word [lyrics] the way we would want to. I’d sit and wonder, ‘If the fans knew how it worked, what would they think?'” Malik told the mag. “My argument was: People are more intelligent than that. They want to hear what’s real, so why don’t we write some stuff that we’re actually going through?”
Malik seems to be much happier these days. Following his 1D exit and his split from fiancée Perrie Edwards, he began dating model Gigi Hadid and regained some normalcy by visiting his family.
“[I saw] my mum, who cooked me some great food. I ate for three weeks because I’d lost so much weight in the band,” the Brit continued. “I seen my sisters and put my dad’s sheepskin on — I walked around and everyone thought I was him. Nobody bothered me. It was good for my soul to be back in Bradford.”
One Direction, meanwhile, will take an extended hiatus beginning in March.
