Zayn Malik FINALLY opens up about Perrie Edwards: “I love her a lot, I always will”

The former 1D star broke his silence to Fader magazine

Zayn Malik

by Anna Lewis |
Published on

It’s been four months since Zayn Malik and Perrie Edwards called off their engagement.

And until now, Zayn has kept tight-lipped about the whole thing. But he’s finally decided to break his silence and talk about what really happened.

Talking to America's Fader magazine, the 22 year old denies reports he dumped his fiancee by text, just weeks before they were set to move into their dream £3million home.

zayn-perrie

Zayn explained: “I love her a lot, and I always will, and I would never end our relationship over four years like that.

“She knows that, I know that, and the public should know as well.”

However, he refused to go into the reasons behind their split, adding: “I don’t want to explain why or what I did, I just want the public to know I didn’t do that.”

Zayn and Perrie's relationship in pictures

Gallery

Zayn Malik and Perrie Edwards relationship in pictures

October 20111 of 22

October 2011

Perrie and Zayn first met backstage at The X Factor in 2011, a year after One Direction appeared on the competition and returned to the stage to perform Gotta Be You, just when Little Mix were discovering themselves as a band. But Perrie wasn’t that keen on the boyband singer to start with, later telling an interviewer: “I didn’t really like Zayn when I first met him, because I didn’t know him and he seems a bit cocky and a bit full of himself.”

July 20122 of 22

July 2012

Things went from strength to strength that summer, with Zayn meeting his girlfriend’s parents. At the time, he said: “I went up to meet her mum and family the other month. I was a bit scared of meeting her brother to be honest – he’s in the navy, he’s a big bloke. I thought he was going to be a bit defensive over his sister but he was cool.”

May 20123 of 22

May 2012

With a band as big as One Direction, you can only imagine what the tweenage fans would say about any woman encroaching on ‘their’ boys. Perrie ended up deleting her Twitter account due to all the hate messages she was getting, especially after the couple were spotted out on a rare date in London.

August 20124 of 22

August 2012

But then the first of Zayn’s alleged cheating scandals hit the couple after footage of the 1D singer hitting on a girl in a hotel corridor emerged. Zayn then deleted his Twitter because of the trolls, but more rumours came out in September when someone managed to record audio of him flirting with other girls.

Little Mix Perrie talking about Zayn Malik5 of 22

Little Mix Perrie talking about Zayn Malik

However, despite all the rumours flying around, Perrie sticks with Zayn. Her Little Mix bandmates tell an interviewer in December that they’ve “never seen a boy love a girl as much as he loves her”. Oh, and the couple adopt a dog called Hatchi.

February 20136 of 22

February 2013

Zayn reportedly asks Perrie to move in together to prove they are as strong as they can be. A source tells Closer that Perrie’s unsure about it. “She’d wanted to take the next step for ages, but now she feels she’s still getting to grips with the situation. She’s still terrified that other girls could come forward with allegations,” the insider says. “Zayn is trying to convince her that moving in will alleviate her fears and says she can put her stamp on the home.”

June 20137 of 22

June 2013

The couple are still facing hella rumours as Zayn’s reputation as a bit of a player spreads. To prove his commitment to Perrie, he gets a cartoon version of her tattooed on his arm. “It must be love to be honest. When I’m away from him, I guess he can just take a look at his arm and remind him of me,” she told an interviewer. “So it’s a lovely compliment really. I love it, it’s lovely. It’s a cartoon version of me so it’s a little caricature, it’s cool.”

August 20138 of 22

August 2013

A shockwave runs through the 1D fandom as Zayn takes the plunge and proposes to Perrie with a beautiful diamond ring, which is then spied on Perrie’s finger at the London premiere of the This Is Us documentary. Later he explains how he popped the question in a typically Zayn way. “We were watching a film in the back garden and her mum was there, my mum was there... Erm, my two best mates were there which was quite sick... And that’s it, and she said yeah which is quite sick!” Oh, the romance.

Perrie Edwards talks wedding to Zayn Malik9 of 22

Perrie Edwards talks wedding to Zayn Malik

There was a long period of travelling for both of the lovers, with One Direction on tour around the world and Little Mix promo-ing the hell out of their album. In September 2013 Perrie jokes about wearing her signature purple lipstick on her wedding day, but aside from that, there are no plans for their nuptials.

zayn malik louis tomlinson smoking10 of 22

zayn malik louis tomlinson smoking

…And then sparks worldwide headlines when a video allegedly shows him and Louis Tomlinson smoking dodgy cigarettes and joking about “chicken in Chile”. Oops.

November 201411 of 22

November 2014

Rumours about Zayn’s dissatisfaction with life in 1D rumble on, especially when he didn’t show up to a huge appearance in the US with the rest of his band to promote their album.

March 201512 of 22

March 2015

Perrie is seen without her engagement ring for a couple of weeks. When questioned, she insists that it was at the cleaners. But seeds of doubt had already been planted, leaving many to wonder what was really going on with the couple.

March 201513 of 22

March 2015

A trip to Thailand unearths the biggest scandal to hit their relationship, when British holidaymaker Lauren Richardson comes forward with pics of her and Zayn looking cosy. Zayn is once again forced to deny the cheating rumours, tweeting: “I’m 22 years old... I love a girl named Perrie Edwards. And there’s a lot of jealous f**ks in this world.” He flew home for ‘crisis talks’ with his long-suffering girlfriend and she was later seen leaving their shared home with her bags packed.

March 25 201514 of 22

March 25 2015

But then he did something no-one saw coming: he quit the band. In his leaving statement, Zayn said he just wanted to pursue a normal life, but distraught Directioners immediately targeted Perrie and branded her the “Yoko Ono” of the band.

April 201515 of 22

April 2015

The couple fly to Italy for a break from all the media attention, taking Zayn’s sisters with them. Perrie shares a bunch of pictures of the pair kissing and cuddling, sparking speculation that she was putting the Thailand drama behind her.

June 201516 of 22

June 2015

An interviewer asks Perrie about her wedding plans and she shoots back, “I’ll get married when I’m bloody ready.” A week earlier she’d referred to herself as Perrie Malik in an Instagram video, so obviously the entire 1D fandom has another breakdown. Plus she shares a picture of an enormous white dress, saying it’s her old prom dress – but fans are convinced she and Zayn have secretly got married already.

July 201517 of 22

July 2015

They buy themselves a £3million north London mansion, but Zayn still doesn’t seem happy – or particularly normal – in his professional life. He has a go at collaborator Naughty Boy on Twitter, calling him a “fat joke” after footage of him appearing in Krept & Konan’s No Type video leaked online. There are no more cheating rumours, although Perrie has to deal with the news that bandmate Jesy Nelson has just got engaged to her Rixton frontman boyfriend Jake Roche. She and Zayn are no longer the golden couple.

August 4 201518 of 22

August 4 2015

News suddenly drops that Zayn and Perrie have broken up after a four-year romance. People magazine confirms the news and further reports claim Zayn dumped Perrie over the phone, calling off their engagement at the same time. Perrie is reportedly furious but has to put a brave face on it as she’s in the middle of a Little Mix promo tour.

little mix perrie zayn split19 of 22

little mix perrie zayn split

Perrie’s Little Mix bandmates gather around her and protect her from the media storm, with Leigh-Anne Pinnock telling one TV host that “we don’t want to talk about it” in response to her probing questions.

zayn malik perrie edwards first got together20 of 22

zayn malik perrie edwards first got together

But Zayn refused to take no for an answer, and texted her every day to ask her out. Eventually, she agreed.

April 201221 of 22

April 2012

By April the next year – four months after Little Mix won The X Factor – Perrie and Zayn had become an official item. Both aged 19, many wondered how their increasingly pressured careers would let them have a relationship, but they stayed together against all odds.

May 201422 of 22

May 2014

Perrie speaks honestly about their relationship, telling one interviewer that the time they spent apart was tough but had its benefits. “It makes it a bit more exciting because you don’t get to see each other, so when you do see each other, you get butterflies. It’s nice. It would be hard if we didn’t feel like they were worth it,” she said. Later that month, Zayn buys Perrie’s mum an actual house…

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