Zayn Malik: ‘I Stayed With One Direction For Other People's Happiness'

Zayn Malik has revealed he wanted to quit One Direction for some time but only stayed ‘for other people’s happiness’.

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The 22-year-old, who quit the boyband on Wednesday, admitted that despite being unhappy, he didn’t want to let the group’s fans down.

Zayn Malik

He told The Sun: "You know, I did try to do something that I wasn't happy doing for a while, for the sake of maybe other people's happiness.

"And that was mainly the fans. And I only ever tried to do it for the fans, and it was only ever for them.

"And basically, I'm only upset (because) I feel like I may have let them down in some sort of way. That's the main thing that I don't want to happen.

"It's not that I've turned my back on them or anything, it's just that I just can't do that anymore because it's not real to me."

One Direction will continue as a four-piece

Zayn also denied claims there has been tension with the rest of the band and said he believes the remaining members, Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan, will continue making music together for some time to come.

"They still want to do it for a while, so they're going to carry on doing what they want to do,” he explained.

"And I think they're going to do ok for a while, do you know what I mean? I think they're going to be cool."

Zayn added that he was pleased he left the band in such harmonious circumstances.

"That's why it's been really good for me, because I feel it's been a bit different to when other bands have broken up or when a member's left or whatever,” he said.

"My band has been really supportive. They've been really cool about it. And they understand that, you know, it's not real to me anymore."

Despite Zayn believing the band will continue without him, there is already speculation that Harry Styles could be about to throw in the towel too.

A source told E! News: “Harry has told his friends that the wants to get into acting. He loves Los Angeles."

During the band’s rare breaks, Harry often spends time in LA, and earlier this year he held his star-studded 21st birthday bash there.

"Harry has distanced himself from the rest of the band over the last year,” a second source explains to E!. "He considers himself to be on a different path to the other boys.

"He certainly has hopes of doing solo stuff, branching out on his own, and so this might be the natural juncture in which to do that."

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