Zayn Malik: Never Loved Gigi, Avoids Public Relationships

Zayn Malik has admitted that he doesn't think he was ever 'in love' with ex-girlfriend Gigi Hadid, but insisted he will 'always' care for her because of the connection they share through their daughter.

The singer, 33, dated the model, 30, on and off for six years, with the pair welcoming five-year-old Khai together in 2020, before calling it quits the following year.

But despite their long romance, in a 2024 interview on the Zach Sang Show, the former One Direction star surprised fans when he confessed to having never 'truly been in love'.

Appearing on the Call Her Daddy podcast this week, Zayn doubled down on his previous admission, saying that while he believed he was in love at the time, he has since realised his feelings didn't run as deeply as he'd thought.

Reflecting on his relationship with the Victoria's Secret angel, he said: 'My understanding of love is always developing.

'At that moment in time, I might have thought it was love, but as I’ve got older, I’ve realized maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was lust. Maybe it was this. Maybe it was that. I don’t feel like it was love.'

The singer, 33, dated the model, 30, on and off for six years, with the pair welcoming five-year-old Khai together in 2020, before calling it quits the following year (seen in 2016)

But Zayn was quick to clarify that while not romantically, he still loved Gigi 'a crazy amount' and 'will always love her', as the mother of his child.

'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 insisted.

'I will always love her, but I don’t know if I was in love with her. 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 Die For Me star also revealed that he is 'not looking for a public relationship again', saying that he had learned from previous experience that they 'don't work for me'.

Zayn - who dated and was engaged to Little Mix star Perrie Edwards from 2012 to 2015 - added that when he was young he 'tended to get in trouble in relationships'.

He said: 'I’m not looking for a public relationship again, and just out of experience, no offense to anybody that I have been in public relationships with before.

'I’ve just learned from it that it don’t work for me. I’m quite a private person. I don’t really strive for people’s approval or attention. So the relationship should really be between me and that person.

'And I think that personality type, somebody who doesn’t want to do that, would be more suited to me.'

But despite their long romance, in a 2024 interview on the Zach Sang Show, the former One Direction star surprised fans when he confessed to having never 'truly been in love'

Appearing on the Call Her Daddy podcast this week (seen) Zayn doubled down on his previous admission, saying that while he believed he was in love at the time, he has since realised his feelings didn't run as deeply as he'd thought

But Zayn was quick to clarify that while not romantically, he still loved Gigi 'a crazy amount' and 'will always love her', as the mother of his child (Gigi and Khai seen last month)

However, he said he was in no rush to meet someone as he candidly explained how he found being single 'so freeing'.

'I don’t find being alone scary,' he declared. 'No disrespect to all the past relationships I’ve been in. 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.

'I tended to get in trouble in relationships, because I was young, did certain things, spoke to other females when I shouldn’t have been. You live and learn from it, but this way, there’s no guilt.'

Last year, Gigi offered rare comments on Zayn, as she opened up on their co-parenting arrangement to Vogue.

'Zayn and I do our custody schedules months in advance', she revealed. 'That doesn't mean that it doesn't change here and there, but we help each other out and have each other's backs.'

The star added that she and her ex have entered this phase of their partnership with 'love, and a feeling of camaraderie.'

Their six-year romance came to an end after Zayn got into an altercation with Gigi's mother Yolanda Hadid, for which he received 360-day probation and was ordered to complete anger management and domestic violence programs.

Zayn - who also dated and was engaged to Little Mix star Perrie Edwards (seen in 2014) - revealed that he is 'not looking for a public relationship again', saying that he had learned from previous experience that they 'don't work for me'

Gigi has since gone up to strike up a romance with Hollywood star Bradley Cooper, who at 51 is more than two decades her senior, after meeting at a children's party in October 2023 (seen together in September)

Referencing the incident, Gigi lamented: 'There is the hard part of the world knowing this much, and thinking they know everything. And at the end of the day, we're not interested in giving everyone our whole story.

'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.'

She has since gone up to strike up a romance with Hollywood star Bradley Cooper, who at 51 is more than two decades her senior, after meeting at a children's party in October 2023.

And sources told the Daily Mail in December, that the Oscar nominated star has asked both his and Gigi's mothers for their blessing to propose to her later this year.