In an appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast with Alex Cooper, former One Direction singer-songwriter Zayn Malik opened up about the altercation with Gigi Hadid's mother Yolanda in 2021, in which she said he "struck" her.
"I don't tend to get involved when people say things online, whether it's got something to do with me or whether it doesn't," Malik told Cooper, per TMZ. "Because for me, the most valuable thing that I have in life is time and that takes so much time in a toxic environment, to like, explain yourself to people and justify this. So I just kind of keep to myself, I knew what the situation was. I knew what happened. And the people involved knew what happened too. And that's all I really cared about."
Malik explained that he thinks anybody "of a sane mind" should be able to respect his decision to remain tight-lipped on the incident, which he pleaded no contest to in 2021. "Like, I just didn't want to bring attention to anything, you know, I just wasn't trying to get into a negative back-and-forth with her, any sort of narrative online where my daughter was going to look back and read that and be able to read into it," said Malik, who welcomed his first child with Hadid in September 2020. "It would just be something that—there was no point. I believe I dealt with it in the best way, in an amicable, respectful way and that's all that needs to be said. I feel like it's a lot of negativity, you know."
Cooper suggested that it must be difficult to deal with being in the spotlight, as "no family is perfect" and not all of that dirty laundry needs to be publicly broadcasted. "If something happens in the family, like, I'd rather keep that between the family," he added. "You don't need a whole audience of people and opinions because it's hard enough to manage between two."
Yolanda Hadid accused Malik of hitting her during an argument. In an effort to protect that space for [my daughter] I agreed to not contest claims arising from an argument I had with a family member of my partner’s who entered our home while my partner was away several weeks ago,” said Malik in 2021 in what was his only public statement on the matter. “This was and still should be a private matter but it seems for now there is divisiveness and despite my efforts to restore us to a peaceful family environment that will allow for me to co-parent my daughter in a manner in which she deserves, this has been ‘leaked’ to the press.”
Shortly after Yolanda accused him of striking her, the British singer reportedly broke up with Gigi Hadid. He was accused of calling her a "fucking Dutch slut" during the argument and asked her to "stay away" from his daughter. She alleged he "shoved" her into a dresser, which caused "mental anguish and physical pain." He was sentenced to 360 days probation and was required to participate in both an anger management and domestic violence program.
Check out the full episode of the podcast below.
