At least Zayn Malik has Gigi Hadid...?
In the December issue of British Vogue, the 25-year-old pop singer admits he didn't make a single friend before he quit One Direction in March 2015, effectively leaving Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson in the dust. "I have always been a bit like that, though—always a bit of an island," Malik says with a shrug. "I don't like to confer with too many people."
Reflecting on his time in the boy band, Malik admits the grueling schedule took a toll on his mental health, and it affected his relationships with Horan, Payne, Styles and Tomlinson. "We went from theaters, to arenas, to stadiums. There was never any sort of bridge between. Just boom, boom, boom. I guess that kind of progression to any mind—but especially when you're 17, 18—it kind of affects you a little bit. People take it different ways—especially when there are five different personalities," Malik tells the magazine. "The relationships had broken apart."
After Malik quit One Direction, the band soldiered on as a quartet for one more album before going on an indefinite hiatus to pursue solo projects. While Horan, Payne, Styles and Tomlinson have remained close, Malik admits, "I ain't spoke to any of them for a long time, to be honest with you. That's just the way it is. There's things that happen and things that were said after I left..." After a pause, Malik adds, "Snide things. Small things that I would never have expected."
While his relationship with 1D may be fraught, his on-again relationship with supermodel Gigi Hadid is better than ever. "Everything is great. She's super-organized and I'm really not," the singer confesses. "It helps that she can get things together for me a little bit. I lean on her a lot."
The full interview with Malik appears in British Vogue's December issue, available Nov. 9.