Little Mix's Perrie Edwards Says Zayn Malik Romance Was ‘A Little Bit Toxic’

Perrie Edwards’ relationship with Zayn Malik made headlines in the mid-2000s — but a decade later, she admits the relationship wasn’t completely healthy.

“It wasn’t ideal,” Edwards, 32, said of her 2015 split from Malik on the Tuesday, August 19, episode of the “We Need to Talk” podcast, adding that it shaped her view of future relationships.

The former Little Mix singer added that because Malik, 32, was her first true love, she didn’t always see the relationship clearly.

“At the time, I thought everything we experienced in our relationship was normal. Because it was my first relationship, first love,” Edwards recalled. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is how it’s supposed to feel. It’s supposed to feel a little bit toxic. In some ways, this is probably normal.’”

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She continued: “And then when I became single, I was almost thinking, like, ‘I never, ever want to go through that again.’ I didn’t even want to meet anybody. I was like, ‘That’s me, done.’ I don’t think I could bear that pain. The pain of heartbreak is so grim.”

Edwards, who began dating Malik when she was on The X-Factor in 2011, explained that the pair had a common interest in music and were connected by their quick rise to fame. (Little Mix was a popular girl group in the U.K. that formed in 2011 and went on a hiatus in 2022. Malik, meanwhile, was part of boy band One Direction from 2010 to 2015.)

“This was early days. It was all very new for them as well,” Edwards said of getting close to Malik when One Direction was just starting out. “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.’”

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The British singer noted, “It was pretty easy at first,” and then “it got more difficult as it went on.”

Edwards said that before Malik she had “little boyfriends at school,” but nothing that made her feel like, “Oh, my gosh, this is it.”

Edwards and Malik dated for two years before getting engaged in August 2013. During most of their relationship, they tried to stay out of the public eye and let their careers speak for themselves. However, that only added to their tension.

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“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,” she recalled. “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.”

Edwards and Malik announced their split in August 2015, and the fallout made headlines for months, which the “Forget About Us” singer said only made her heartbreak worse.

“It was just a lot. … It was too much. It was just everywhere. It followed me like a bad smell,” she remembered of the breakup, noting that her Little Mix bandmates are what pulled her through the “really difficult time.”

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

Once Edwards was on the other side of heartbreak, she said she “learned a lot” from her and Malik’s relationship. It also caused her to have some reservations about finding love again.

“I think it maybe [thinking a romance can’t be sustained] comes from past relationships and how the other person’s handled it. Then you just assume, ‘Oh, nobody’s going to want this,’” Edwards mused. “So [I] think maybe my previous relationship made me think, ‘Oh I probably can’t have my cake and eat. I probably can’t be a popstar and have a relationship.’ It’s one or the other.”

Courtesy of Perrie Edwards/Instagram

The pop star noted that her fear of heartbreak did seep into her relationship with fiancé Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

“Reflecting back, I’m thinking, ‘Oh, that probably wasn’t good.’ And I’ve noticed it a lot,” Edwards said. “Like in the start of the relationship, I would handle things differently with Alex, and he’d come at it with such a level head that it would throw me.”

It took time, but Edwards eventually learned to trust Oxlade-Chamberlain, 32. The couple, who share son Axel, 3, got engaged in 2022 and the musician has only good things to say about the soccer player.

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“He’s so sweet and so genuine,” Edwards said of her partner, calling him very “laid back” no matter what the situation.

She explained, “Like, little things might happen, and I’d think, ‘Oh, now he’s going to kick off, he’s not going to like this.’ And I’d be like, ‘Oh, this happened.’ And he’d be like, ‘Alright,’ and it would throw me.”

Edwards added, “He’s very mature. He’s very laid back. He’s very levelheaded. He’s not the type to get mad or get angry or get funny about things.”

While Edwards has found The One in Oxlade-Chamberlain, Malik is currently single. The “Pillowtalk” singer, however, dated Gigi Hadid following his split from Edwards. Hadid , 30, and Malik welcomed their daughter, Khai, in September 2020, before calling it quits the following year.

Us Weekly has reached out to Malik’s rep for comment.