When you grow up a Directioner in India, it’s hard not to be in love with Zayn Malik. As a result, I have followed his and model Gigi Hadid’s relationship very closely over the years. I remember seeing the Pillowtalk music video for the first time in 2016 and losing my mind. I don’t even know what my 12-year-old self even understood from that. I remember being 14 and hearing about the couple breaking up. All my friends and I were heartbroken. You think parasocial relationships are bad now? Hell hath no fury like a teenage girl scorned. 

Then, they got back together. They even had a little baby girl. I turned 16. They broke up again. By this time, I was long over One Direction and couldn’t care less about the lame boy band anymore. Media reports claimed that Malik had struck Hadid’s mother Yolanda Hadid. Malik denied those claims. Malik went dark. He would release his albums but stayed away from all press. Much more happened in the 1D universe but Malik mostly stayed off-headlines. And then last week, he claimed he was never “in love” with the mother of his child.