Zayn Malik has reflected candidly on his past relationship with Gigi Hadid, saying he no longer believes he was “in love” with the model despite their six-year on-and-off romance. The singer, now 33, and Hadid, 30, share a daughter, Khai, who was born in 2020 before the pair separated the following year. 

Speaking on the Call Her Daddy podcast this week, Malik revisited remarks he first made in 2024 on the Zach Sang Show, where he surprised fans by admitting he had never “truly been in love.” He reiterated that sentiment, arguing that age and maturity have since reshaped his understanding of what real love means.

Feelings for Hadid were not love

Malik explained that while he once assumed his feelings were genuine love, he has since come to view them differently.

“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.”

Despite this reassessment, the former One Direction member stressed that he still feels deep affection and respect for Hadid 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 said.

“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.”

Reflects on past behaviour and public relationships

Zayn, who was engaged to Little Mix singer Perrie Edwards from 2012 to 2015, noted that in his youth he frequently found himself ‘in trouble’ in relationships.

“You tend to get in trouble in relationships because I was young and did certain things, spoke to other females when I shouldn’t have been, as most people do. You live and learn from it. But this way, there’s no guilt. I can just be free and speak to whoever I want, and, hopefully, if I meet somebody that I want to be serious with, I’ll have spent enough time in this place to know that I want to be with that person and be committed to them.”

He added that he has no intention of entering another high-profile romance, having learned that public scrutiny does not suit him.

“I’m not looking for a public relationship again, and just out of experience, no offence 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.”

Enjoys single life and independence

Malik said he is content being on his own, describing solitude as liberating.

“I don’t find being alone scary,” he said. “I’m cool with myself,” adding that he enjoys his own thoughts and prefers spending time independently. He noted that even with family, he has never been someone who needs constant contact.

“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.”

He said past clashes often stemmed from his youth and poor choices, “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.”

Hadid previously spoke about co-parenting

Hadid has kept their co-parenting largely private but told Vogue last year that she and Malik maintain a structured schedule.

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

She added that they approach parenting with “love, and a feeling of camaraderie,” even as parts of their past relationship remain under public scrutiny.

Their relationship ended after Malik was involved in an altercation with Hadid’s mother, Yolanda Hadid, which led to probation and court-mandated programmes. Hadid later said: “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.”

Hadid now dating Bradley Cooper

Hadid has since moved on with actor Bradley Cooper, 51. The pair reportedly met at a children’s party in October 2023, and sources told the Daily Mail last December that Cooper has sought approval from both families before proposing later this year.