Zayn Malik has admitted he does not believe he was “in love” with Gigi Hadid during their on-off relationship.
The One Direction alum opened up about his past relationship with the model, with whom he shares his five-year-old daughter, Khai.
During an appearance on Wednesday’s episode of Call Her Daddy, Zayn explained that while he and Gigi dated on-and-off for five years, he now questions whether his feelings at the time amounted to love.
“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 told host Alex Cooper. “I will always love her, but I don’t know if I was in love with her.”
Zayn continued, “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.”
The Pillowtalk singer, 33, explained that his understanding of love has evolved over time, suggesting that what he once believed to be love may have been something else.
“My understanding of love is always developing,” he shared. “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.”
Zayn and Gigi began dating in late 2015 and, after several years of an on-off relationship, officially split in 2021. Gigi, 30, has been dating actor Bradley Cooper since 2023.
The singer, who also previously dated Little Mix star Perrie Edwards, admitted that being single has been “freeing”.
“No disrespect to all the past relationships I’ve been in,” he stated. “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.”
