“It’s a normal place to feel it”

The 32-year-old singer Zayn Malik, is finally opening up. In a rare and candid moment, the pop star who skyrocketed to international stardom with One Direction shared that anxiety is a natural companion to life in the limelight. From performing in front of sold-out arenas to navigating relentless public scrutiny, Malik says living in the public eye makes anxiety feel almost inevitable. 

In a resurfaced interview on the ‘Call Her Daddy’ podcast, he said: “I think it’s a really normal place to experience anxiety. Reflecting that fame isn’t just glamorous, it’s also a fertile ground for mental health challenges.

“You’re gonna go and perform in front of a lot of different people, you don’t know who they are. It’s not a natural thing to do in everyday life. You don’t just talk to thousands of people. It was something that I learnt to adjust [to].”

“Anxiety, for me, I’ve learnt, is a feeling that now has a word, you know? I feel like for generations, human beings have felt it and not even really been able to put a finger on what it is. But we overcome it. Certain things in life can change your perspective.”

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Zayn “enjoyed” the feeling of performing when he was a child, but it slowly started to feel “too much”. He explained, “I enjoyed being in that feeling. Then, it got to a certain point where it just became too much. It was weighing on me, that feeling of anticipation, then getting the adrenaline, and then the after feeling of that.” 

“As a young kid, I loved it, I loved being on stage and I loved performing. It was a free space for me to be a character because I was playing a role in a school play…”

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“When it became a thing that had a lot of weight behind it in terms of people watching, then you’re gonna have natural feelings of anxiety.”

When he was thrust into the public eye, Zayn struggled with “not being able to do normal things” like “go outside and walk out onto the street”. Knowing he wanted to be a father motivated him to step back and ensure she wasn’t brought up in that world.

Zayn, who has a four-year-old daughter, Khai, with ex Gigi Hadid, said: “Obviously, thinking about having a child and raising her in that environment, it was very claustrophobic for me “I didn’t want her to have to be exposed to that. She didn’t choose that, and it was the choice I made.”