Zayn Malik breaks his silence on ‘shoving’ Yolanda Hadid during confrontation

Zayn Malik has broken his silence on his confrontation with Yolanda Hadid, which saw him charged with four counts of harassment.

The former One Direction star, 30, pleaded no contest to the charges after allegedly pushing his former partner Gigi Hadid‘s mother into a dresser and calling her a ‘f*****g Dutch sl*t’ in September 2021.

Court documents revealed that he had to complete 360 days probation in addition to completing an anger management class. 

During an appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, Zayn said he believes he dealt with the situation ‘in the best way’ and described the incident as ‘family issues’. 

The singer said: ‘I don’t get involved when people talk online. My most valuable thing for me is time and I don’t want to be justifying myself. 

‘I knew what the situation was and I knew what happened and the people involve know what happened and that’s all that matters. 

‘I didn’t want to bring attention and I didn’t want to get a negative back and fourth with her any sort of narrative for my daughter to eventually read it. 

‘I believe I dealt with it in the best way and that’s all that needs to be said. It was a lot of negativity. 

‘They’re family issues I’d rather keep that in the family. I’m very hands on with my child, if I could have 60% I would take it.’

On September 29 2021, Yolanda went to the property Zayn then shared with his ex Gigi Hadid while she was modeling in Paris. 

Zayn was there, though it’s unclear if their now two-year-old daughter Khai was. What transpired next is unclear but the pair started arguing and Zayn ‘grabbed Yolanda’ and ‘shoved’ her into a dresser.

He also verbally berated her, screaming: ‘Stay away from [my] f*****g daughter’ and calling Yolanda a ‘f*****g Dutch s**t’.

He is said to have called Gigi in Paris and yelled down the phone to her: ‘Strap on some f*****g balls and defend your partner against your f*****g mother in my house.’ 

A security guard was present for the exchange, according to the court documents, and Zayn screamed at him: ‘Get the f*** out of my f*****g house copper.’

At another point he referred to fathering Khai with the ‘f*****g sperm that came out of my f*****g c**k’.

Gigi refused to comment in detail on the matter but released a statement at the time through her representative that said: ‘Gigi is solely focused on the best for Khai. She asks for privacy during this time.’ 

Zayn posted a statement on social media that confirmed there was an incident, that he pleaded no contest (although it was unclear at the time that he’d been criminally charged) and that he was trying to protect his daughter.

He denied striking Yolanda, as had been reported by TMZ, citing an unnamed source.

Elsewhere during his podcast interview, Zayn discussed co-parenting Khai with Gigi, saying: ‘Co-parenting is good yeah, we have a really good relationship for Khai. She is the main importance. It’s going well, I think.’

Zayn, who now lives on a farm in Pennsylvania, discussed wanting to give his daughter as much of a private life as possible and feels he has ‘rekindkled’ his own childhood through her.

He said: ‘She didn’t choose [fame], that’s why we live here. I’m not shielding her from it because she’s going to get to an age where she has a certain amount of awareness and will know what’s going on. 

‘I’m trying to give her an option and choose if she wants to be away from it she can come here. She will have a lot of options and whatever she wants to do in life she can do. 

‘I have 50% of the time and that time is so important she is growing up so fast. When I’m with her I don’t work I spend the full day with her doing things she wants to do like painting, park, the zoo and have fun.’

The hitmaker also told how he has grown fond of telling ‘dad jokes’ and enjoys playing instruments with Khai.

He said: ‘As an adult, things go grey and she has bought the colour back for me for sure. 

‘I keep getting told I keep telling I’m telling dad jokes and I don’t mind, I love a dad joke. My favourite thing to do with her, she shows a lot of musical intelligence already and I love playing instruments with her and singing. I’ll sing and she joins in.

‘She does good harmonizing with me shes only 2 and a half and she harmonies well with me and she can hold them for a long time and I think she has ability. 

‘She can hit these high notes and I’m like whoa I didn’t even speak til I was three. She’ll remember a full song as well. 

‘We sing a lot of Disney songs like You Got A Friend In Me it’s very cut. She’s funny and cheeky, she laughs a lot. She loves reading as well which I think she took from me. I have so much respect for my parents now.’

Zayn discussed his time with One Direction and how he ultimately chose to leave the band in 2015 with remaining members Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson carrying on as a quartet.

He said: ‘I knew for a minute there was a lot of politics, certain people didn’t want to sign contracts and I new something was happening so I was like I’ll just get ahead of the curve and get out of here, I think this is done.’

While remaining coy about the finer details, Zayn said contract disputes were a factor in him leaving the group along with the fact that he wanted to be the first member to release solo music.

He said: ‘I completely selfishly wanted to be the first person to go and make my own record. I jumped the gun and when it comes to my music. I’m serious and competitive and I wanted to be the first to do that.’

Zayn revealed there ‘underlying issues’ among him and the other four members of the group.

He said: ‘We had been together nearly every day for five years. We were close and got to do crazy things together which no one else in the world will ever understand. 

‘I look back now in a much fonder light than when I first left. It just ran its course. I wasn’t afraid of what the world thought first thing I wanted to do was ring my mum and be like, “can I come home?”

‘As soon as she said yeah I was like, “Ok I’m done.” I hadn’t told my mum before hand I hadn’t really thought about it. 

‘I just rang her like do you have a bed for me but my dad was like no stay with Simon. I wasn’t there long until I went back to London for work.’

One Direction first found fame as contestants on the 2010 series of The X Factor, which Zayn described as a ‘crazy’ time.

He said: ‘It was strange when we were on the live shows you could see people were interested and it was a bit crazy. I don’t think I comprehended it at all it was just fun but repetitive fun takes a certain toll and it feels ovebearing. 

‘It was fun and amazing and of course I’d never understand it but it was fun. I was 17. Its taken me so much time to process it now I’m older. I don’t black it out I just don’t over think it. 

‘We got thrown into the deep end there was no time for anxiety. I definitely got out at the right time. If I’d done it any longer it might have affected me more.

‘They use to make out I was the serious one, that wasn’t really my personality type it was just a marketing scheme. 

‘I get it but I don’t think you can define on person as that we were a bit more complex than that. 

‘I think I just had one face to pull and that was it and fans go with it.’

Zayn also discussed a typical day in his life, saying he usually wakes up around midday and will often be in his studio until he’s ready to go to bed.

He said: ‘If I feel like writing and going to the studio, I’ve been concentrating on my records and getting into the studio. I’ll be there until I literally go to sleep. I like my own space and collect my thoughts in a quiet environment.

‘I like to cook. I like to cook meat. I have a smoker outside and do like lamb with vegetables. When I was living by myself at 17, there was definitely disgusting stuff going down. 

‘I also have three cats and three dogs, three turtles, six chickens and I haven’t named them because it made me really sad.

‘I took one of my chickens to the vet for an X-ray and the vet laughed at me like people don’t bring chickens here and I just went home and cried cause she died in my arms.’

Elsewhere during the interview, Zayn contrasted his life in Pennsylvania with growing up in Bradford, West Yorkshire.

He said: ‘[Bradford] is very different to hehere for sure but I’m very grateful where I group it shaped and modelled my identity for me. 

‘I was questioned and interrogated earlier on and you have to have an understanding who you are but I’m grateful for that. 

‘Something was always questioned like clothes, hair if you weren’t dressed a certain way people would give you s**t, you had to be street smart. I grew up in a terrace rented property we never owned it. It was small. 

‘My parents kept me away from it. My dad made me aware what was out there. That’s how I got into music because I would write in my bedroom alone and my parents kept me away from that other life. 

‘I wasn’t the cool kid and I wasn’t bullied. It makes me gratful for what I have now.’