‘I tried to reach out and be their friend’

He caused hearts to break all over the world when he made the shock decision to quit One Direction in March 2014.

But despite blasting the boy band's manufactured pop sound ever since his departure, Zayn Malik insists he has no hard feelings towards his former bandmates and was in fact the only one who tried to reach out and make amends.

In a new interview with Luomo Vogue, the 23-year-old singer claims that despite the boys - Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson declaring in interviews they were still friends, no one except for Liam has ever returned his calls or his texts to this day.

'I did try to reach out to a couple of people and they didn’t get back to me, but then publicly, when they were asked questions about it, said that they’d spoken to me and that we were friends.

'But that’s not the case, I tried to reach out and be their friend but they haven’t even replied to any of my calls or texts.'

The brooding Bradford hunk was quick to clarify that he didn't choose to leave 1D after five years together because of any 'animosity' or tension with the other lads, but rather because he felt stifled creatively.

Despite selling over 50 million records with the band, who were formed on The X Factor in 2010, Zayn says he never really enjoyed the success and always felt like the odd one out.

Now signed to RCA records and preparing to drop his first solo album, Gigi Hadid's boyfriend is finally taking pleasure in the music he's making.

“Now that I can really be myself and make music that feels honest to me, it doesn’t feel like work', he explained to the magazine.

'It really is relaxing to me. When I decided to leave, it wasn’t a big build up, it had always been underlying.

'I never felt like I belonged in the group, I was just doing it because at the time, I felt like it was the right place for me to be.'

Source: dailymail