Zayn Malik made headlines and broke hearts when he announced that he was leaving One Direction back in 2015. Now, the “Pillowtalk” singer is giving more insight as to why he left, in his first interview in years.
“There was a lot of politics going on,” Malik said during Wednesday’s episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast.
“Certain people were doing certain things, certain people didn’t want to sign contracts, so I knew something was happening. So I just got ahead of the curve. If I’m being honest with you, I was like: ‘I’m just going to get out of here. I think this is done.’”
“I completely selfishly wanted to be the first person to go and make my own record,” he added. “I was like, ‘I’m going to jump the gun here for the first time.’”
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Malik said he’s generally a “passive dude,” but “when it comes to my music and my business, I’m serious about it and I’m competitive.”
“I wanted to be the first to go and do my own thing,” he explained. “That was the reason.”
The singer added that there were “obviously underlying issues” between members of the band and in their friendships.
“We’ve been together every day for five years, and we’ve got sick of each other,” he said, without going into detail.
Eight years ago, One Direction released a Facebook post in which Malik said he was leaving the band for good after half a decade with the group.
“I am leaving because I want to be a normal 22-year-old who is able to relax and have some private time out of the spotlight,” he said at the time. “I know I have four friends for life in Louis, Liam, Harry and Niall. I know they will continue to be the best band in the world.”
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Soon after, One Direction announced that the group was taking an extended hiatus. One member, Liam Payne, said in 2019 that staying in One Direction any longer “would have killed me.”
“There’s no stop button. You’ve got no control over your life,” he said during an appearance on the “Table Manners With Jessie Ware” podcast that year.
Payne said he was “definitely over-worked” in that “mega stressful” period of his life, but that taking a break from the band proved hard as well.
“I just lived so long as this reclusive pop star who was afraid of people, who just stayed inside all the time,” he said, adding that he’s now figured out “how to be a person.”