Zayn Malik says he was not in love with Gigi Hadid: ‘Maybe it was lust’

Zayn Malik and Gigi Hadid were once one of pop culture’s most talked-about couples, with their romance and eventual breakup drawing intense public scrutiny. Years after their split, the singer has now made candid confessions about their relationship and shared that while he respects Gigi, he was not in love with her. He also admitted to cheating on her.

Zayn Malik on not loving Gigi Hadid

During his appearance on the podcast Call Her Daddy, the singer reflected on their relationship and said, “Yeah, because 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 realised maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was lust. I don’t feel like it was love.”

He admitted cheating and confessed, “I tended to get in trouble in relationships, ’cause I was young, did certain things and spoke to other females when I shouldn’t have been. You live and learn from it, but this way, there’s no guilt.”

Zayn added, “And to be fair, just to say this on record, I will always love G [Gigi] because she’s the reason my child is on this earth. And I have the utmost respect for her. I will always love her. But I don’t know if I was ever in love with her. Because even when I said it, I think people took it a type of way. So I’m just like, ‘Yo, I have so much respect for this woman, and I do love her, a crazy amount.’ But yeah, no, but I don’t think I was in love with her at that point. Otherwise, I would have been a better version of myself.”

While Zayn is currently single, he is not looking forward to being in a public relationship again. Malik added, “Just out of experience. No offense to anybody that I have been in public relationships with before. I`ve just learned from it that it don’t work for me, you know?”

About Zayn Malik and Gigi Hadid

Zayn Malik and Gigi Hadid were in a relationship for almost six years before they decided to part ways in 2021. The former couple welcomed their daughter, Khai, in September 2020. They continue to co-parent their daughter.

Gigi Hadid is now dating Bradley Cooper and went Instagram official with him in 2025. The supermodel shared a series of photos from her 30th birthday party on Instagram, and among them was a photo of Hadid kissing Cooper. To note, the couple has a massive age gap of 20 years.