Former One Direction singer Zayn Malik shared some rare insight into the 2021 fight with Yolanda Hadid that preceded his breakup with Gigi Hadid.
Malik appeared in a recent interview speaking about that situation and other topics, including co-parenting the daughter he shares with Hadid.
His 2021 fight happened in Pennslyvania, where he’d shared a home with Gigi then.
Per E! News, a police report indicated that Malik had acted with “intent to harass, annoy or alarm” Gigi and her mom, Yolanda Hadid, using “lewd, lascivious, threatening or obscene words” at the residence.
Gigi was not present at home at the time. It led to an arrest and charges for Malik in 2021, who pleaded no contest to harassment charges after he allegedly shoved his ex’s mother.
However, the singer denied the accusations and said via a statement he issued back then that he would remain “vigilant” in protecting his daughter’s privacy.
Zayn Malik opens up about 2021 fight involving Yolanda Hadid
On Wednesday, singer Zayn Malik made his first appearance for a public interview in six years as he spoke to Alex Cooper on the Call Her Daddy podcast.
“I knew what the situation was, I knew what happened, and the people involved knew what happened too. And that’s all I really cared about,” he told Cooper.
Malik spoke about “family issues” and said he thinks it’s better to keep things “between the family” rather than having a “whole audience of people and opinions.”
He also said he believed anyone else “of the same mind” looking at the situation could understand he “didn’t want to bring attention to anything.”
“I just wasn’t trying to get into a negative back and forth with her—any sort of narrative online where my daughter was going to look back and be able to read into it, and it would just be something; there was no point,” Malik said during the podcast.
He also indicated he felt he dealt with the situation “in an amicable, respectful way.” He said he stayed quiet about things because he didn’t want to waste time by getting involved in the toxicity that tends to happen on the internet.
“That takes so much time in a toxic environment to, like, explain yourself to people and justify this, so I just kind of keep to myself,” Malik said.
Malik co-parents daughter with Gigi Hadid
As mentioned, Malik shares a 2-year-old daughter Khai with his ex-partner, 28-year-old model Gigi Hadid. Malik and Hadid broke up in 2021 after a six-year off-and-on relationship.
Malik’s daughter and co-parenting with Hadid came up several times during the Call Her Daddy podcast. Malik said that if his fight with Yolanda Hadid had been as extreme as some online chatter suggested, he wouldn’t have any custody of Khai.
“I’m super full-on, hands-on with my child every chance I can be,” Malik told Cooper, adding, “If I could get 60 percent [custody], I would have it.”
He shared that “co-parenting is good,” and he and Gigi still “have a really good relationship” for their daughter, whom he said was the “main importance.”
“So yeah, it’s going well,” Malik said, joking, “I think.”
Zayn also mentioned that he continues to work on overcoming and managing his anxiety to be a “good example” to his daughter regarding her seeing him doing things.
“I want her to be able to look at me and be able to go, ‘Dad’s doing this,’ you know? ‘He’s the man. He’s cool. He is a cool guy,'” Malik said.
Malik’s first sit-down interview in six years arrives ahead of his anticipated return to music. The former One Direction singer has a new single, Love Like This, set to release on July 21.