Perrie Edwards reflects on Zayn Malik romance: 'Refreshing'

Perrie Edwards recently got candid about the intensity of her bond with former One Direction star Zayn Malik, who shares a daughter with Gigi Hadid.

For those unversed, the 32-year-old singer dated Malik from 2011 to 2015. Reportedly, the singer was her first real love.

In a new chat on the We Need to Talk podcast, she recalled how bonding over shared experiences in the early days of their careers initially felt refreshing.

“This was early days. It was all very new for them as well,” she said. 

Perrie met Zayn while competing on The X Factor as part of Little Mix.

“I think meeting someone at that time in your career who’s kinda at the same point is kinda refreshing. It’s like, ‘Oh, you get it.’ It was pretty easy at first, [but] it got more difficult as it went on.”

The couple deliberately tried to keep their relationship private. 

“I think part of us keeping everything private was because it was nice to have something private in general. Everything else was just laid out,” Perrie explained and remarked, “I think we didn’t want to."

"I felt bad for the girls because a lot was made to be about him. It was the start of our careers.”

Later in the chat, Perrie detailed how devastating it was when their engagement ended, and how the public scrutiny made it even harder.

“It was just a lot," she said adding, "It was too much. It was just everywhere. It followed me like a bad smell.” 

“I felt embarrassed. I felt weird. Really sad. Going through all these emotions and going through it with everyone staring at me was mortifying,” Perrie concluded.