Zayn Malik just got very real about his relationship with Gigi Hadid and his mental health struggles

‘Love hurts. Love is hard.’

Gigi Hadid Zayn Malik couple photo
Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik
(Image credit: Beretta/Sims/REX/Shutterstock)

‘Love hurts. Love is hard.’

Despite usually remaining tight-lipped about all things involving his personal life, Zayn Malik recently opened up about his relationship with Gigi Hadid, his public break up from fiancé, Perrie Edwards, and his mental health battle.

‘Love hurts, love is hard’, the 24-year-old explained in an interview with Sunday Times Style Magazine, while talking about his break up from ex-fiancée, Perrie Edwards. ‘Maybe my experiences of love up to writing that album were new and hard.’

When talking about his current girlfriend, Gigi Hadid, he described the model who starred with him in his Pillowtalk video as ‘a really good artist’ and ‘really creative’, before explaining their current situation. ‘She’s been living with me for the past year,’ he explained. ‘I’ve not taken her to Bradford, no – not yet. She’s met my family in London a few times, though.’

He went on to talk about his struggles with anxiety and the eating disorder that forced him to cancel a run of shows, explaining how he got through it with the help of his mother.

‘It was a control thing’ he explained. ‘Every area of my life was so regimented and controlled, it was the one area where I could say, “No, I’m not eating that”. Once I got over the control, the eating just came back into place super naturally.’

He continued: ‘I came back to the UK and spent some time with my mum and got some TLC, and she cooked me food and I got back in touch, mentally with a lot of the things I’d lost. I now have no problem with anxiety. It was something I was dealing in the band.’

Jenny Proudfoot
Features Editor

Jenny Proudfoot is an award-winning journalist, specialising in lifestyle, culture, entertainment, international development and politics. She has worked at Marie Claire UK for seven years, rising from intern to Features Editor and is now the most published Marie Claire writer of all time. She was made a 30 under 30 award-winner last year and named a rising star in journalism by the Professional Publishers Association.