PERRIE Edwards has revealed how her ex Zayn Malik contacted her after his split with Gigi Hadid – and how her footballer fiance Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain reacted to this.
The Little Mix star’s very public engagement to first love Zayn , now 32, fell apart before millions of fans .
Just one year after Zayn found fame in One Direction on The X Factor , Perrie burst onto the scene on the same show in 2011.
Both teenagers at the time, they met when 1D returned to perform on the ITV singing contest that her band Little Mix went onto win.
Just months later, the young stars were a fully fledged couple, sharing sweet selfies from places like Disneyland.
But it was never plain sailing as Zayn was alleged to have cheated with an Australian waitress in a London club, and was later hit with more claims of infidelity.
In 2013, he demonstrated his commitment by getting a portrait of Perrie tattooed on his arm and even bought her mum a house in Dorset .
But in 2015, they split — and she was left devastated , with reports at the time that he had ended their almost four-year romance by text .
The ordeal inspired one of Little Mix’s biggest hits, the chart-topping Shout Out To My Ex.
‘TOXIC’ RELATIONSHIP
Now 32, the mother-of-one, who is happily engaged to her fiancé, footballer Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain . has discussed her “toxic” relationship with Zayn .
Speaking on this week’s Paul C. Brunson’s We Need To Talk podcast, she said: “I think definitely, at the time, I thought everything we experienced in our relationship was normal. Because it was my first relationship, first love.
“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, right?’.
“And then, when I became single, I was almost thinking, ‘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.
“But now, I’m thinking, ‘Oh, that probably wasn’t good’. And I’ve noticed it a lot.”
Perrie also talked about how her past pain affected the early days of her relationship with Alex , who she started dating in 2017 – two years after her Zayn split.
“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,” she said.
On what kind of man Alex is, Perrie continued: “He’s very mature. He’s very laid back. He’s very level-headed.
“He’s not the type to get mad or get angry or get funny about things. It might sound boring to some, but it’s so unproblematic.”
ZAYN GETS IN TOUCH
Following his split from Gigi , Perrie said Zayn got back in touch with her – something that left her “uncomfortable”, especially when she had to tell Alex.
She shared: “My ex reached out and I didn’t know how to handle the situation. I’d only been with Alex like a year and a half, two years. And I felt a bit uncomfortable about it.
“And I remember sweating and panicking, thinking, ‘I’ve got to tell him that obviously I’ve spoken to him.’ And I would be terrified… And he was like, ‘Okay, well, I really appreciate you telling me, thank you for letting me know. That’s fine. Like, hopefully he doesn’t contact you again.’
“And I was thinking, ‘Okay, cool. That’s it.’”
HAPPILY EVER AFTER
Perrie is now embracing life as a wife-to-be, and a mother-of-one.
The singer and her fiance Alex welcomed their son Axel , four, in 2021, and the pair are enjoying being parents.
The footballer asked Perrie to marry him in 2022, when he got down on one knee on holiday.
The happy couple have been together since November 2016, although they didn’t make their relationship public until February 2017.
