Zayn Malik speaks out to defend the new Taylor Swift

'I don't have a bad word to say about her'

Taylor Swift returned to our radar last month, releasing her number one hit Look What You Made Me Do and later, ...Ready For It?, both set to be part of her upcoming album, Reputation.

Taylor Swift's comeback has been met by mixed reviews, with her new electropop tracks showing a different side to the 27-year-old singer - and throwing some serious shade at a lot of high profile figures - Katy Perry, Calvin Harris, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West to name a few.

Since the release of Look What You Made Me Do, produced and co-written by Grammy Award-winning Jack Antonoff, Taylor has been getting some seriously bad press - from the backlash of throwing shade at other artists to getting booed for not greeting fans at her friend's wedding.

There are some artists however, that have stood up for the 27-year-old singer, one of whom being good pal Gigi Hadid's boyfriend, Zayn Malik.

Look What You Made Me Do was Taylor’s first release since her collaboration with Zayn on I Don’t Wanna Live Forever last December, and it looks like her friend and past collaborator has her back.

'When it comes to anything that has to do with trivia about people’s personal lives or things that’s going on in their careers, I don’t necessarily pay too much attention,' the 24-year-old singer explained to Fader. 'I don’t pay too much attention to what people even say about me. I just tend to take it for what it is when I meet people in real life and have a conversation with them. If they’re cool with me, then I base my relationship on that.'

He continued: 'Of course I relate to things being written about us all the time. But I don't listen to it. I rate [Taylor] as an artist, I think she's cool, I think she's successful, and I think she deserves her success because she's worked hard. That's just how I look at it. I did a song with her, it was fun, she was professional. She gets on with my girlfriend, they're good friends. I don't have a bad word to say about her. She's cool.'

It looks like Zayn isn't going to be on Taylor's 'list of names with [his] name underlined.'