Former One Direction singer Zayn Malik has set the internet ablaze after revealing whether or not he was 'in love' with Gigi Hadid during their five on-and-off relationship.
Malik joined Alex Cooper on her hit celebrity interviewing podcast, Call Her Daddy, on February 11 to lift the lid on his life, covering everything from his life on his farm in Pennsylvania, his enjoyment of fireworks, and his ex-girlfriend, Hadid, with whom he was from 2015 until they split in 2021.
The pair are parents to a daughter, Khai, who was born in 2020.
Speaking on the latest episode of the podcast, Alex asked the 'Pillowtalk' singer to clarify a previous comment he’d made about relationships in the past.
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“You said in an interview that you don’t know if you’ve ever truly been in love,” she said. “Do you still stand by that?”
The interview in question is from 2024, when the former One Direction star appeared on The Zach Sang Show, where he said he doesn't know whether he has 'actually truly been in love at this point'.
He continued: "You look back at it with new eyes and you're like, 'Well, maybe I wasn't in love there'. Was it love or is it life experience that we are going through? Who knows. We're just in situations where we look back with different eyes and it's a completely different situation."
And Malik still stands by his original sentiment, as he replied: “Yeah. My understanding of love is always developing. At that moment in time, I might have thought it was love, but as I got older, I realised maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was lust. Maybe it was this, maybe it was that. I don’t feel like it was love.”
However, the musician went on to say that he has nothing but the 'utmost respect' for Hadid, as he added: “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.
"I have the utmost respect for her, and I will always love her … but I don’t know if I was ever in love with her.""
He clarified that he thinks people took his original comment a 'type of way', saying: "So, I'm just like yo, I have so much respect for this woman and I do love her a crazy amount. But yeah, I don't think I was in love with her at that point. Otherwise, I would have been a better version of myself."
Similarly, last year, Hadid also told Vogue that they 'help each other and have each other's backs', adding: "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."
Online, people have called his confession ‘diabolical’, with one person on X writing: “How does he claim to have upmost respect for her and goes on podcast telling the PUBLIC he never loved her…. Mind you his daughter will have to see this one day….”
Someone else said: “Saying you love her but u were never in love with her is diabolical.”
However, others were a lot more understanding, as one person said that he 'never said he wasn't in love with Gigi at the time', but 'actually said he thought it was love', adding: "His point was that his understanding of love has developed and now he doesn’t know if he was truly in love.”
Another said: "You have to read the whole quote down to the bottom to get it all the way. Makes sense to me. IF he was in love with her, he would've treated her better.
"Ultimately saying he didn't love himself either."
UNILAD has reached out to the representatives of Malik and Hadid for comment.
Topics: Music, Gigi Hadid, Celebrity, Podcast, Social Media, Twitter
Britt Jones