Five years after British-Irish boyband One Direction shot into stardom, Zayn Malik decided to leave the band, much to the surprise of their young fans.
"Zayn Malik has decided to leave One Direction," the announcement read. "Niall, Harry, Liam, and Louis will continue as a four-piece and look forward to forth coming concerts of their world tour and recording their fifth album."
The rest of One Direction supported the singer's decision and noted that they "will always be friends."
Malik left One Direction on Mar. 25, 2015, to be a "normal 22-year-old." Years later, the "Dusk Til Dawn" singer revealed that there is more to the story than was announced.
Zayn Malik Reveals Real Reas2on Why He Left One Direction
During the singer's appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, Malik shared what was really going on behind the scenes with One Direction leading up to his departure.
"There was a lot of-look I don't want to go into too much detail, but there was a lot of politics going on," he said in July 2023. "Certain people were doing certain things, certain people didn't want to sign contracts, so I knew something was happening, so I just got ahead of the curve. I was like, 'I'm just going to get out of here. I think this is done.'"
Shortly after leaving, Malik began working on his solo debut album, Mind of Mine, which spawned the hit single "Pillow Talk."
"I'm serious about it and I'm competitive, so I wanted to be the first to go and do my own thing," he added. "That was the reason-and then there was obviously underlying issues, like within our friendships too."
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One Direction Overworked?
According to reports, one reason Malik decided to leave One Direction was that they were being worked to the bone.
The singer described their typical daily schedule and explained that it was "so that you didn't have time to think because you were concentrating so hard on work. I lost my bearings of what time it was, sometimes, what day it was."
In the interview, the "Love Like This" singer explained that he no longer wanted to live like that, so the only way to escape the situation was to leave altogether.
One Direction went on to release one more album, Made in the A.M., in 2016, only to announce their 18-month hiatus shortly afterward.
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