Zayn Malik has broken his silence on his feud with Yolanda Hadid, in which he has been accused of four counts of harassment.
The former One Direction star, 30, pleaded no contest to charges after he pushed his ex-partner Gigi Hadid’s mother into a dresser and called her a ‘f******g Dutch s*t’ in September 2021.
He had to complete an anger management class as well as complete 360 days of probation, court documents said.
During an appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, Zayn said he believes he handled the situation in the ‘best way’ and described the incident as a ‘family issue’.
The singer said: ‘I don’t get involved when people talk online. For me, my most precious thing is time and I don’t want to justify myself.
Speaking out: Zayn Malik breaks silence on his feud with Yolanda Hadid, which led to her being charged with four counts of harassment
Controversy: The former One Direction star, 30, pleaded no contest to four counts of harassment after pushing his ex-partner Gigi Hadid’s mother, Yolanda Hadid, into a dresser and calling her a ‘f*****g Dutch sl*t. In September 2021
Former couple: Zayn said he believes he dealt with the situation ‘in the best way possible’ and described the incident as a ‘family issue’ (pictured with Gigi Hadid in March 2017)
‘I knew what the situation was and I knew what happened and the people involved know what happened and that’s all that matters.
‘I didn’t want to bring attention and I didn’t want to get a negative back and fourth with him [or] Some kind of narrative for my daughter to finally read.
‘I believe I have dealt with it the best I can and that is all that needs to be said. It was a lot of negativity.
‘These are family issues that I want to keep in the family. I am very hands on with my child, if I can have 60 per cent I will take it.’
On September 29, 2021, Yolanda visited the property Zayn shared with her ex Gigi Hadid while modeling in Paris.
Zayn was there, although it is unclear if they had their now two-year-old daughter Khai. It is not clear what happened next but the pair started arguing and Jane ‘grabbed’ Yolanda and ‘thrown’ her into a dresser.
He verbally berated her, shouting: ‘Stay away [my] f****g daughter’ and calling Yolanda a ‘f*****g dutch s**t’.
He called Gigi in Paris and shouted at her over the phone: ‘Tie some f*****g balls and protect your partner against your mother* in my house.’
Family: Zayn discusses co-parenting his daughter with Gigi, saying: ‘Co-parenting is good yeah, we have a really good relationship for Khai’
Interview: Jane, who now lives on a farm in Pennsylvania, discusses wanting to give her daughter as much privacy as possible.
According to court documents, a security guard was present for the exchange, and Jayne yelled at him: ‘Get the copper out of my f******g room.’
In another place he mentions fathering Khai with ‘f*****g sperm coming out of my f****gc**k.
Gigi declined to comment further on the matter but released a statement at the time through her rep which said: ‘Gigi is focused on what’s best for Khai. He wants privacy at this time.’
Zayn posted a statement on social media confirming that an incident had occurred, that he pleaded no contest (although it was unclear at the time if he had been criminally charged) and that he was trying to protect his daughter.
He denied hitting Yolanda, as reported by TMZ, citing an unnamed source.
Elsewhere during his podcast interview, Zayn discussed co-parenting with Gigi, saying: ‘Co-parenting is good, yeah. We have a really good relationship with Khai. He is of prime importance. It’s going well, I think.’
Jane, who now lives on a farm in Pennsylvania, wants to give her daughter as much privacy as possible and feels that she has ‘relived’ her own childhood through her.
He said: ‘He didn’t choose [fame], this is why we live here. I’m not shielding him from it because he’s about to reach an age where he has a certain amount of awareness and will know what’s going on.
He said: ‘I’m trying to give him an option and if he wants to get away from it, he can come here. He will have many options and can do whatever he wants in life.’
‘I’m trying to give him an option and if he wants to get away from it, he can come here. He will have many options and can do whatever he wants to do in life.
‘I have 50 per cent of his time and that time is very important. He’s growing up so fast. I don’t work when I’m with him. I spend the whole day with her doing whatever she wants to do like painting, the park, the zoo and having fun.’
The hitmaker also spoke about how he has become fond of telling ‘dad jokes’ and enjoys playing instruments with Khai.
She said: ‘As an adult, things go gray and he definitely bought the color for me.
‘I keep saying that I tell dad jokes and I don’t mind, I love dad jokes. My favorite thing with him… He already shows a lot of musical talent and I love playing instruments and singing with him. I would sing and he would join in.
‘He got on well with me. He’s only two and a half and he tunes well and he can hold it for a long time and I think he has [singing] power
‘He can hit these high notes and I’m like, “Oh”. I didn’t speak until I was three. He will also remember an entire song.
‘We sing a lot of Disney songs like You’ve Got a Friend in Me, it’s so beautiful. He is funny and cheeky, he laughs a lot. He likes to read which I think he took from me. I have a lot of respect for my parents now.’
Zayn discusses his time with One Direction and how he ultimately decided to leave the band as a quartet in 2015 with remaining members Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson.
Early days: Zayn also discussed his time with One Direction and how he ultimately decided to leave the band in 2015 (LR Niall, Zayn, Louis, Liam and Harry in 2013)
While tight-lipped about the finer details, Zayn said contract disputes were the reason he left the group and the fact that he wanted to be the first member to release solo music.
He said: ‘I knew for a minute there was a lot of politics here. Some people didn’t want to sign the contract and I knew something was going on so I was like, “I’m just going to get ahead of the curve and get out of here, I think it’s done.”
‘I totally selfishly wanted to be the first person to make my own record. I jumped the gun and when it comes to my music, I’m serious and competitive and I wanted to be the first to do it.’
Zain revealed that there were several ‘underlying issues’ between him and the other four members of the group.
He said: ‘We were together almost every day for five years. We were close and did crazy things together that no one else in the world could understand.
‘I look back much more brightly now than when I first left. It just ran its course. I wasn’t afraid of what the world thought. The first thing I wanted to do [after leaving] Ring my mom and say, “Can I come home?”
‘As soon as I said yes, I was like, “Okay I’m done.” I didn’t tell mom before. I never really thought about it.
‘I just called him, “Do you have a bed for me?” But my dad was like, “Don’t be with Simon.” I wasn’t there until I went back to London for work.’
One Direction first rose to fame as contestants on the 2010 series of The X Factor, which Zayn described as a ‘crazy’ time.
He said: ‘It was weird when we were at the live show, you could see people were interested and it was a bit crazy. I don’t think I understand it at all. It was just fun but repetitive fun takes a certain toll and it feels boring.
Tough: He also touched on the levels of fame he’s experienced in One Direction during the chat
‘I am 17 years old. It took me a long time to process it now that I’m older. I don’t black it out, I just don’t think about it.
‘We were thrown in at the deep end, there was no time to worry. I must have been out at the right time. If I did it again, it might affect me more.
‘They were proving that I was a serious person, it wasn’t really my personality type, it was just a marketing scheme.
‘I understand but I don’t think you can define a person as that. We were a little more complicated than that. I think I only had one face to pull and that was it and the fans went with it.’
Zayn also discussed a typical day in his life, saying that he usually wakes up around noon and often stays in his studio until he’s ready to go to bed.
He said: ‘If I want to write and go into the studio, I’m concentrating on my records and getting into the studio. I’ll be there until I literally go to sleep. I like my own space and collect my thoughts in a quiet environment.
‘I like to cook. I like to cook meat. I have a smoker outside and I do lamb with vegetables. By the time I was 17 and living alone, the disgusting things were definitely going down.
‘I have three cats and three dogs, three turtles, six chickens and I didn’t name them because it made me really sad.
‘I took one of my chickens to the vet for an x-ray and the vet laughed at me like people don’t bring chickens here and I just went home and cried because she died in my arms.’
Elsewhere during the interview, Jane contrasted her life in Pennsylvania with growing up in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
He said: ‘[Bradford] Definitely very different from here but I’m very grateful where I grouped it and modeled my identity for me.
‘I’ve been interrogated before and you have to understand who you are but I’m grateful for that.
‘Something like clothes, hair was always questioned if you didn’t wear a certain outfit that people gave you, you had to be street smart. I grew up in a terraced rented property that we never owned. It was small.
‘My parents kept me away from it. My father made me aware of what was there. That’s how I got into music because I used to write alone in my bedroom and my parents kept me away from that other life.
‘I wasn’t a very good kid and I wasn’t deprived. It makes me grateful for what I have now.’