Zayn Malik opens up for the first time about his decision to quit One Direction: We got sick of each other

Zayn Malik is opened up about his exit from One Direction for the first time in eight years. While appearing in a podcast called the Call Her Daddy, Malik spoke at lenghth about why he decided to leave the British boy band in 2015 which had catapulted him to stardom.

Malik, in his first interview in nearly six years, said that he took the decision to leave as he had hoped to beat out his fellow bandmates in launching a solo career. He also added that after five years together, they'd started to grow sick of spending all their time together.

"I don't want to go into too much detail, but there was a lot of politics going on. Certain people were doing certain things, certain people didn't want to sign contracts, so I knew something was happening," he said. "So I just got ahead of the curve, if I’m being honest with you."

Zayn Malik and One Direction

The singer was part of One Direction along with Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, and Liam Payne. They were all contestants on the British competition series The X Factor in 2010 and eventually formed a band.

By 2015, the group had released four No. 1 albums and enjoyed superstardom with a huge fan base but Malik recalls he was ready to move on. The singer said that as soon as he realized the band’s final days might be near and he was ready to leave the first due to his competitive nature.

"I was like, 'I'm just gonna get out of here, I think this is done,’” he said. "I completely selfishly wanted to be the first person to go and make my own record. I was like, 'I'm gonna jump the gun here for the first time. I'm a passive dude but when it comes to my music and my business, I'm serious about it. I'm competitive, so I wanted to be the first to go and do my own thing."

Malik announced his departure in March 2015 which left fans of the band in huge shock. One Direction released one final album without him that November. They later went on an indefinite hiatus in 2016. All five members eventually launched successful solo careers.

Soon after his exit, Malik's debut single, "Pillowtalk," topped the charts in January 2016. The musician mentioned that while pursuing a solo career was a big motivation, he also acknowledged that spending so much time with his bandmates had taken a toll, and they were ready to spend some time apart.

"There was obviously underlying issues within our friendships, too. We'd been together every day for five years and we got sick of each other, if I'm being completely honest," he said on the podcast. "We were close. We'd done crazy things with each other that nobody else in the world will ever understand… I look back on it now in a much fonder light than I would’ve as I'd just left."

"I had great times with them, but yeah, we'd just run our course," he added. "I feel like we did a good job in terms of keeping it together and making the music that we were meant to make. I think I got out at the right time. I think if I had done it any longer it might've affected me a bit more. But I think we did the right amount."

Though he'd been thinking about leaving for a while, Malik says his actual departure was "kind of spur of the moment," and he hadn't even run it by his parents. Malik recalled that while his mother was supportive of his decision, his father did not take it too well.
"I said, 'I'm coming home, is it OK? Have you still got a bed for me?' And she was like, 'Yeah,'" he said. "My dad wasn't so cool about it. He was like, 'No, no, you've got to stay with Simon (Cowell), Simon's gonna steer you right. Don't come home, stay there!' But my mum was like, 'Yeah, you can come home, please son, come home!'"

Malik is currently working on his fourth album, and will release his new single 'Love Like This' next week.

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