Zayn Malik: One Direction boys ignore me when I try to call

The singer has revealed that he is struggling to stay in touch with his former band mates
Ignored: Zayn Malik is not in contact with his former band mates
Philip Vaughan/ACE Pictures/Rex
Emma Powell7 January 2016
The Weekender

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Zayn Malik has revealed that he is no longer in contact with his former One Direction band mates.

Malik, 22, quit the world famous boy band in March 2015, but assured fans he would have “four friends for life”.

Ten months after his departure, the Bradford-born singer is struggling to keep in touch with Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson, with some of them ignoring his messages.

Speaking to Billboard he said: “The truth of it is, you can think one thing about a situation and the total opposite can happen. I had every intention of remaining friends with everybody, but I guess certain phone numbers have changed and I haven’t received calls from a lot of people.

“I’ve reached out to a few of them and not got a reply. Certain people have pride issues, but it’s stuff you overcome in time.”

One Direction's Zayn Malik - In pictures

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On leaving the band, Malik said he wanted to be a “normal 22-year-old”, but went on to record as a solo artist.

Speaking about his musical taste compared to that of his former band mates he said: “I genuinely enjoyed [the band] and did whatever I could to be myself within that, but it’s just not where I sit as a musician.

“The other boys’ taste was generally indie rock. It’s good music, but I don’t f*** with it. That was never cool where I was from.”

He continued: “We weren’t allowed to say certain things, or word [lyrics] the way we would want to. I’d sit and wonder, ‘If the fans knew how it worked, what would they think?’ My argument was: People are more intelligent than that. They want to hear what’s real, so why don’t we write some stuff that we’re actually going through?”

His comments come a month after Simon Cowell branded Malik "rude" for criticising One Direction.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror he said: "It is a bit rude to the people who wrote all the hits with them. And to the other band members. I mean they all wrote a lot of the stuff."

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