Over the years, fans of One Direction have wondered what exactly went wrong in the boyband. Follow Zayn Malik‘s departure in 2015, rumors began to circulate that there were beefs within the group. In a recent appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, Zayn explained what went down.
While he doesn’t get into specifics too much, Zayn revealed that constantly being lumped together proved draining for him.
“There were obviously underlying issues,” he continued. “Like within our friendships, too. We’ve been together every day for five years, and we got sick of each other, if I’m being completely honest. So we were close.”
He also revealed that stardom became overwhelming. Especially as there was more “visual evidence” of the One Direction phenomenon.
“We started to get a fan base and an audience and you could see that people were paying an interest in us,” he said. “From that point on, it was kind of a bit crazy.”
Zayn dropped his third album, Nobody Is Listening in January of 2021, which was his last album under RCA.
He recently signed a deal with Mercury Records, and will release his new single, “Love Like This,” next Friday, July 21.
You can see a clip of Zayn’s episode of Call Her Daddy above.