Zayn Malik questioned whether he was “in love” with his ex-girlfriend, model Gigi Hadid, on the latest episode of Call Her Daddy.
The pop vocalist and former One Direction member spoke to host Alex Cooper about his split from Hadid, whom he dated on and off from 2015 to 2021. The exes share a 5-year-old daughter, Khai.
Malik and Hadid’s breakup was tumultuous, with the singer reportedly getting into an altercation with Hadid’s mother, Yolanda Hadid, in 2021.
Around the 40-minute mark of the episode below, Malik maintained that he doesn’t know if he’s ever been in love, which he revealed on The Zach Sang Show in 2024.
“My understanding of love is always developing,” Malik told Cooper. “At that
moment in time, I might have thought it was love, but as I got older, I realized maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was lust.”
“I don’t feel like it was love,” Malik added.
The vocalist also stressed that he will “always love” and have the “utmost respect” for Hadid, considering that she’s the mother of their daughter.
“I will always love her, but I don't know if I was ever in love with her,” he explained.
Malik said that if he were in love with Hadid, he would have been a “better version” of himself at the time they were dating.
Although Malik did not specify that he was in a relationship with Hadid at the time, the 33-year-old revealed that he’s cheated in the past and considers himself “free” as a single man.
“[I] tend to get in in trouble in relationships, too, ‘cause I was young and did certain things,” Malik told Cooper. “[I] spoke to other females when I shouldn't have been, as most people do. You live and learn from it.”
Hadid has been dating actor Bradley Cooper since 2023 and went official with him last May in an Instagram post. The model gushed about her relationship in an interview with Vogue that year, saying that Cooper makes her feel “lucky.”