Zayn Malik Left One Direction Because He “Selfishly” Wanted to Be the First to Go Solo

Interviews aren’t traditionally Zayn Malik’s cup of tea. The musician tends to stay out of the spotlight as much as possible, only speaking to the press when he absolutely has to—which is why it was a shock to learn that he was sitting down for an in-depth interview with Alex Cooper for her Call Her Daddy podcast, his first major interview in over seven years. Malik opened up about everything, including some never-before-revealed information about his final days with One Direction.

In the interview, Malik shared that he felt “overexposed” from his time in the wildly popular band, which is partly why he’s stepped back from public appearances. He’s also uncomfortable with the boy band stereotypes people assign to him—think The Cute One, The Bad Boys, etc.

“They’re just like, ‘Oh yeah, you can be mysterious.’ “That’s not really my personality, I’m just a laid-back person,” he explained. “I know a lot of people have an energetic personality, and that’s not my personality.”

Malik opened up about his decision to leave the band in 2015; at the time, he cited exhaustion and a desire to be a “normal person,” but it seems there was more going on than what he shared in his shocking statement nearly 10 years ago.

“I don’t want to get into too many details, but there was a lot of politics going on.”

“Some people were doing certain things, some people didn’t want to sign, so I knew something was going on, so I just had to get ahead of it… I was like, ‘I’m getting out of here. I think this is done.’”

Malik also admitted that he had plans to make a solo album and felt the timing was right. “I was completely selfish about wanting to be the first one to do my own album, if I’m being completely honest with you. I was like, ‘I’m going to rush this first time.’ I’m a passive guy, but when it comes to my music and my business, I’m serious and competitive, so I wanted to be the first one to do my own thing.”

While Malik says he looks back on his 1D years in a “much more fond light” now, that wasn’t the case at the time. “There were definitely underlying issues, like in our friendship. We were together every day for five years, and we were bored, if I’m being completely honest,” he explains of his relationship with his bandmates before the split. “We did crazy things together that no one else in the world could understand,” the musician shares. “We had great experiences, I had great times with them, but yeah, we just went our separate ways.”

The musician also shares that he kept his decision to leave the band pretty private—even his mother didn’t know he was planning to leave. “I don’t really care what other people think, that’s the kind of person I am,” Malik says. “I tried to shut those opinions down. I’m not really the type of person who defines myself based on other people’s opinions.”

Since then, he’s had a lot of time to reflect, rest, and figure out what’s really important to him.