Zayn Malik once said he never made friends with any of his One Direction bandmates.
But fast forward nearly a decade and the British singer is ready to extend an olive branch, according to insiders, who claim he is looking for ‘forgiveness and friendship’ from his fellow former One Direction members.
Malik, 31, devastated fans when he abruptly quit the pop group in March 2015, citing ‘stress’ for the reason behind his shock exit.
Less than a year later, his former bandmates Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson disbanded, confirming the group would be going on an indefinite hiatus.
Zayn Malik is ready to extend an olive branch to his former Once Direction bandmates according to insiders, who claim he is looking for ‘forgiveness and friendship’
Malik, 31, was vocal about his estrangement from his bandmates in the years following his departure, once claiming he ‘didn’t really, like, make any friends from the band’
Now, after nearly a decade of estrangement and bitter jibes, Malik is reportedly looking to rebuild a friendship – and he is not averse to the possibility of a reunion.
‘He doesn’t know if it will ever happen, or when, but he would love to start a conversation with the other guys from One Direction and try to make amends with all of them,’ an insider told DailyMail.com exclusively.
‘He is trying to figure out the best way to reach out because it will be odd, weird, and uncomfortable, but it is something that has been on his mind.’
The insider insisted the decision is purely based on rebuilding relationships – not on getting the band back together to perform.
‘Whether that leads them to working together again musically is one thing, but Zayn’s reasoning is to become friends with his mates that he did so much with.
‘Zayn wants to approach them for forgiveness and friendship. Working with them is not important to him right now.
‘He has matured and wants to show the rest of the guys this. To be friends again would be amazing.’
Malik, who was 17 when the group formed, has been vocal about his estrangement from his bandmates in the years following his departure, claiming ‘nobody reached out,’ that he never really had a relationship with Styles, and that he ‘didn’t really, like, make any friends from the band’ – which he described as ‘generic as f**k.’
After nearly a decade of estrangement and bitter jibes, Malik is reportedly looking to rebuild a friendship – and he is not averse to the possibility of a reunion (pictured on X Factor in 2010)
Malik recently revealed the reason why One Direction resented each other in candid interview on The Zach Sang Show (pictured)
Last week, in a rare interview, he discussed feelings of resentment during his time in One Direction and claimed their maturity level at the time, combined with their initial solo ambitions, put them in ‘competition’ with each other.
‘Now, when I look back at it, I can look at it in a positive light and be like, all these guys came from similar backgrounds to me,’ he told the The Zach Sang Show. ‘They had nothing, they worked their [butts] off, they wanted to sing, they got the thrown in a band.
‘And you know, we resented each other to a certain degree because we were solo artists that were put in a band, and we should have never felt that way.
‘It should have never been a competition. It should have always been a camaraderie, and we should have always been there for each other and had each other’s backs.’
Formed in 2010 by Simon Cowell on the UK X Factor, One Direction went on to become one of the best-selling boybands of all time, selling more than 70 million records worldwide and becoming the first band in the US Billboard 200 history to have their first four albums debut at number one.
Malik, who has three-year-old daughter Khai with model Gigi Hadid, launched his solo career with debut single Pillowtalk in January 2016. He became the first UK artist to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with a debut single and has since released three albums.
Last year he revealed the reasons behind his abrupt departure from One Direction, admitting he ‘completely selfishly’ wanted to be the first to jump ship when he realized the end was coming when the others refused to sign new contracts.
‘There was obviously underlying issues within our friendships, too,’ he told the Call Her Daddy podcast. ‘We’d got sick of each other if I’m being completely honest.’
Malik went solo with his debut single Pillowtalk in January 2016, which starred supermodel Gigi Hadid, with whom he shares three-year-old daughter Khai (pictured 2017)
His comments echoed those he made back in 2018 to British Vogue, in which he admitted to not communicating with any of them.
‘I ain’t spoke to any of them for a long time, to be honest with you,’ he said at the time. ‘That’s just the way it is. There’s things that happen and things that were said after I left… Snide things. Small things that I would never have expected.’
The relationship between the quintet has repeatedly been revisited in the nine years since Malik quit, with Horan, Payne and Tomlinson all revealing that they have had little to no contact with the Bradford-born singer.
In 2020 Horan told The Sun that Malik is ‘a hard fella to keep in touch with,’ insisting there was no bad blood, but that Malik simply didn’t speak to his former bandmates after the split.
‘I don’t particularly talk to him a lot,’ Horan said. ‘I mean, if he’s got something coming out or something I will text him. He might not reply but I’ll give him a shout, but I don’t know… After the band, he left for his reasons and then he never really spoke to us much afterwards.
‘I’ve got no bad blood with him at all but some things have a lifespan. I don’t know. We will see what happens. Maybe one day we can reconvene at some point, but not right now.’
Payne previously told GQ magazine that Malik didn’t even say goodbye on leaving the band and that he hadn’t heard from him since.
Malik and Tomlinson previously come to blows on Twitter, now known as X, soon after Malik quit One Direction and was pictured with producer Naughty Boy (pictured together in 2014)
‘I think with Zayn’s particular exit and the way he chose to go, we haven’t really heard from him since he left,’ he told the publication in 2019.
‘He didn’t even say goodbye, if I am being honest. It was a really sordid scenario, from our side certainly. A bit strange. It’s difficult.’
In the same year Tomlinson criticized Malik for failing to show up to support him during his emotional X Factor performance in December 2016, just days after his mother Johannah Deakin had died.
‘I had a couple of calls with him after I lost my mum and all the boys had agreed to come to that performance and he didn’t show, so that really bugged me,’ he told The Dan Wootton Interview podcast.’
The pair had previously come to blows on Twitter, now known as X, soon after Malik quit One Direction and was pictured with producer Naughty Boy.
Commenting on the filtered image, Tomlinson wrote: ‘Remember when you were 12 and you used to think those Mac filters for your pictures were cool haha ! Some people still do HA!’
Malik hit back: ‘Remember when you had a life and stopped making bitchy comments about mine?’
All five have been asked in recent years about the possibility of a reunion, with Styles claiming he ‘would never say never to that’ last year, while Payne said they were all in a WhatsApp group.
Malik, who lives in rural Pennsylvania, is currently gearing up for the release of his fourth studio album, Room Under the Stairs, on May 17.
