Zayn Malik Shares Rare Insight Into Relationship With Ex-Fiancée Perrie Edwards

Zayn Malik is giving a shoutout to his ex.

Nearly a decade after his split from Little Mix's Perrie Edwards, which came amid his departure from One Direction, the 31-year-old looked back at their four-year relationship and engagement. 

"From 17 to 21, I was in a relationship," Zayn recalled in a May 14 profile for Nylon, reflecting on his plans to get married to the fellow X Factor alum. "I was engaged. I didn't know anything about anything at that point. I thought I did, because I was 21. I was legally allowed to do everything, but I didn't know s--t."

Zayn and Perrie's whirlwind relationship coincided with the unprecedented success of One Direction—which also included Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Liam Payne—and saw the "Pillowtalk" singer inking his skin with a cartoon drawing of the Little Mix member and popping the question in 2013. Ultimately, though, for Zayn it was his attempt to grow up too fast. 

"I lived a very chill life in Bradford," he explained. "I never really had a girlfriend. My parents were kind of old-school, so I never brought a girlfriend home or anything. When I got the chance to do that, I jumped straight in, two feet first, and was like, ‘I'm going to have a girlfriend, and she's going to live with me. This makes me a grown man.'"

Overall, 2015 marked a year of major change for the singer. He departed the boy band that March and had ended his romance with Perrie by August, ultimately going on to date Gigi Hadid—with whom he shares 4-year-old daughter Khai—that same year.

As for the rumors he had cheated on his ex-fianceé or ended their relationship over text, Zayn previously shut down speculation. 

"I have more respect for Perrie than to end anything over text message," he told Fader in a November 2015 profile, shortly before his relationship with Gigi went public. "I love her a lot, and I always will, and I would never end our relationship over four years like that. She knows that, I know that, and the public should know that as well. I don't want to explain why or what I did, I just want the public to know I didn't do that."

However, Perrie—who now shares 2-year-old son Axel with partner Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain—doesn't share his recollection as she later reflected on the breakup, and doubled down on the claim that her ex had ended things over the phone.

"It was horrible, the worst time in my life," Perrie wrote in her girl group's 2017 book Our World. "A four-year relationship, two-year engagement ended by a simple text message. Just like that."

And while their relationship ended on rocky terms, Zayn and Perrie—who won The X Factor in 2011 alongside band mates Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirlwall and former member Jesy Nelson—have made it through the dark. 

As Zayn put it to Nylon, "I'm really content and happy with being single for the first time in my life."

While Zayn and Perrie have spread their wings and flew away from one another nearly 10 years ago, read on for more iconic singing duos.

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The singer said hello to a new romance when she reconnected with the sports agent in 2021. Later that year, she praised him as "hilarious" and "very smart" during her CBS special, noting, "It's quite incredible watching him do what he does and just the easiness of it and very smooth."

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The couple welcomed son RZA in May 2022 and baby boy Riot Rose in August 2023.

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