Perrie Edwards has reopened the chapter on one of the most infamous celebrity break-ups of the 2010s.
More than a decade after her split from former fiancé Zayn Malik, the former Little Mix singer has revisited the heartbreak of their 2015 separation, suggesting there was “a bit of an overlap” between the end of their engagement and Malik’s subsequent relationship with Gigi Hadid.
Appearing on the latest episode of Great Company With Jamie Laing, Edwards reflected on the emotional fallout of ending a four-year relationship, articulating the kind of heartbreak that feels painfully universal.
“When you go through heartbreak, it is hellish,” she said. “You feel abandoned, and you don’t feel good enough, and you feel like you’ve been left for something better.”
Edwards and Malik began dating in 2011, shortly after both found fame through The X Factor. They announced their engagement in 2013 before ending their relationship two years later.
At the time, reports surrounding the split dominated tabloids worldwide, with Edwards later claiming Malik ended their engagement via text message.
Reflecting on the period now, Edwards admitted that what followed made an already devastating experience even more painful.
“And then what makes it even worse is I feel like the world was then looking at me, laughing at me,” she explained. “When you’re moving on with somebody else, you always get on better. When you’re the one left behind, that’s when it’s hard.”
She then appeared to address the timeline surrounding Malik’s subsequent romance with Hadid.
“Let’s just say there was a bit of a… I’m just gonna say it… there was a bit of an overlap,” Edwards said. “Then you have a song that they’ve written about you, but then someone else is in the video. It was one thing after the other after the other. I remember finding out about that… it was just the nail in the coffin.”
Her comments appear to reference Malik’s debut solo single, Pillowtalk, which topped the charts in 2016 and featured Hadid as his on-screen love interest in the music video. The pair would go on to have an on-again, off-again relationship spanning almost six years before welcoming daughter Khai in 2020.
Malik and Hadid split for good in 2021 after an alleged altercation involving Gigi’s mother, Yolanda Hadid, led the singer to plead no contest to four criminal harassment charges. He has denied physically harming Yolanda, and the former couple now co-parent their daughter.
Speaking on Call Her Daddy, Malik reflected candidly on their relationship, admitting that while he would “always love” Hadid, he wasn’t sure he had ever been “in love” with her.
“I don’t feel like it was love and, to be fair, just to say this on record, I will always love G because she’s the reason my child is on this earth and I have the utmost respect for her,” he said. “I will always love her, but I don’t know if I was ever in love with her.”
Malik has also previously spoken about the breakdown of his relationship with Edwards. In his 2016 memoir, Zayn, he described the intense media scrutiny surrounding the split as an “invasion of privacy” that coincided with his struggles with an eating disorder.
“My relationship with my fiancée, Perrie, was breaking down,” he wrote. “To make matters worse, there were so many crazy stories flying around in the newspapers about us.”
Years later, speaking to Nylon in 2024, Malik reflected on how little he understood about himself during that chapter of his life.
“From 17 to 21, I was in a relationship,” he said. “I was engaged and [planned to get] married and I didn’t know anything about anything at that point… I thought I did, because I was 21.”
Today, Edwards is engaged to footballer Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and shares two children with him, while continuing to carve out a solo career following Little Mix’s hiatus.
