Zayn Malik Blasts One Direction Press In First Interview In SIX YEARS!

Zayn Malik on Call Her Daddy. It’s a thing. BOOK IT!!!

The former One Direction singer hasn’t been part of the once-iconic boy band for damn near a decade, but the whole world still wants to know how it all went down under the brightest lights, and what really happened when he exited eight years ago. And this week, they’re going to get the chance to hear all about that on Alex Cooper‘s podcast.

Related: Zayn Faces Backlash For Wearing Cornrows Amid Selena Gomez Dating Rumors

On Tuesday, the team behind Call Her Daddy shared a quick promo teasing Zayn’s appearance on this week’s episode. Set to drop Wednesday, the one-on-one is focused on the 30-year-old singer as he preps his forthcoming single Love Like This.

For his first interview in more than half a decade, the teaser showed Zayn taking aim at the media attention and publicly push around 1D way back when. In one cut, he says:

“I feel like we were so overexposed in the band, that’s why I took the time that I have to not even necessarily do interviews.”

In another, he alluded to disliking how he was portrayed alongside Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne, and Niall Horan:

“They just said, ‘oh yeah, you can be the mysterious one.’ That wasn’t necessarily my personality, I’m just chill. I know that a lot of people have high-energy personalities, and it’s just not the way I am.”

But it sounds like things are changing for the now-solo singer.

Alluding to his growth in the publicity space, the teaser also showed Zayn saying this about the daughter who he welcomed in 2020 with model Gigi Hadid:

“Since I’ve had my daughter, the main thing in my mind is trying to be a good example for her. That’s why I’m even doing this interview. I used to get a lot of anxiety around having a conversation like this, and I want her to look at me and be like, ‘yo, my dad’s doing this.’”

Well then!

You can see that and much more in the podcast preview (below):