Zayn Malik Says He Wanted to Be the First from One Direction to Go Solo After He and Bandmates ‘Got Sick of Each Other’

Zayn Malik left the British boy band in 2015, and said in a new interview that the group had “run [its] course” when he left

Liam Payne, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Harry Styles of One Direction at the American Music Awards in Los Angeles in 2014. Photo:Kevin Mazur/AMA2014/WireImage

Eight years after his shocking departure from One Direction, Zayn Malik is opening up about his decision to leave the British boy band.

Malik, in his first interview in nearly six years, told the Call Her Daddy podcast that he hoped to beat out his fellow bandmates in launching a solo career — and that after five years together, they’d started to grow sick of spending all their time together.

“I don’t want to go into too much detail, but there was a lot of politics going on. Certain people were doing certain things, certain people didn’t want to sign contracts, so I knew something was happening,” he said. “So I just got ahead of the curve, if I’m being honest with you.”

The singer, 30, joined One Direction alongside Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne as a contestant on the British competition series The X Factor in 2010.

Zayn Malik.Dennis Leupold

By 2015, the group had released four No. 1 albums and grown an adoring fan base — but Malik was ready to move on. The star said that as soon as he realized the band’s final days might be near, he was ready to jump ship, as his competitive nature was pushing him to be the first of the quintet to go solo.

“I was like, ‘I’m just gonna get out of here, I think this is done,’” he said. “I completely selfishly wanted to be the first person to go and make my own record. I was like, ‘I’m gonna jump the gun here for the first time. I’m a passive dude but when it comes to my music and my business, I’m serious about it. I’m competitive, so I wanted to be the first to go and do my own thing.”

Malik announced his departure in March 2015, and the band released one final album without him that November. They later went on an indefinite hiatus in 2016, and all five members have since launched successful solo careers.

Malik, however, was first, and his post-One Direction debut single, “Pillowtalk,” topped the charts in January 2016. The musician said that although pursuing his own career was the biggest driver of his exit, he also acknowledged that spending so much time with his bandmates had taken a toll, and they were ready to spend some time apart.

Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles, Liam Payne and Niall Horan in London in 2011.Jon Furniss/WireImage

“There was obviously underlying issues within our friendships, too. We’d been together every day for five years and we got sick of each other, if I’m being completely honest,” he said on the podcast. “We were close. We’d done crazy things with each other that nobody else in the world will ever understand… I look back on it now in a much fonder light than I would’ve as I’d just left.”

“I had great times with them, but yeah, we’d just run our course,” he added. “I feel like we did a good job in terms of the keeping it together and making the music that we were meant to make. I think I got out at the right time. I think if I had done it any longer it might’ve affected me a bit more. But I think we did the right amount.”

The star even likened his exit to the NBC sitcom Friends, saying he understood why many fans took it hard.

“It’s an idea, like when you watch Friends,” he said. “You don’t want Joey cussing off Chandler, you want these people to be best friends.”

Though he’d been thinking about leaving for a while, Malik says his actual departure was “kind of spur of the moment,” and he hadn’t even run it by his parents.

The singer said his first move after making his decision was to call his mom, and ask if it was alright with her that he return home.

“I said, ‘I’m coming home, is it OK? Have you still got a bed for me?’ And she was like, ‘Yeah,'” he said. “My dad wasn’t so cool about it. He was like, ‘No, no, you’ve got to stay with Simon [Cowell], Simon’s gonna steer you right. Don’t come home, stay there!’ But my mum was like, ‘Yeah, you can come home, please son, come home!'”

Malik is currently working on his fourth album, and will release his new single “Love Like This” next week.

“I’m doing a record I don’t think people are really gonna expect, it’s a different sound for me,” he teased. “And it’s got some more narrative going on, like real life experiences and stuff. My daughter [Khai, 2½, with ex Gigi Hadid] is mentioned in there a couple of times.”