Zayn Malik Shares Rare Insight Into Romance With Ex Perrie Edwards

As for the rumors he had cheated on his ex-fianceé or ended their relationship over text, Zayn previously shut down speculation. 

“I have more respect for Perrie than to end anything over text message,” he told Fader in a November 2015 profile, shortly before his relationship with Gigi went public. “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 that as well. I don’t want to explain why or what I did, I just want the public to know I didn’t do that.”

However, Perrie—who now shares 2-year-old son Axel with partner Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain—doesn’t share his recollection as she later reflected on the breakup, and doubled down on the claim that her ex had ended things over the phone.

“It was horrible, the worst time in my life,” Perrie wrote in her girl group’s 2017 book Our World. “A four-year relationship, two-year engagement ended by a simple text message. Just like that.”

And while their relationship ended on rocky terms, Zayn and Perrie—who won The X Factor in 2011 alongside band mates Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirlwall and former member Jesy Nelson—have made it through the dark. 

As Zayn put it to Nylon, “I’m really content and happy with being single for the first time in my life.”

While Zayn and Perrie have spread their wings and flew away from one another nearly 10 years ago, read on for more iconic singing duos.