Zayn Malik opens up about his eating disorder, anxiety and One Direction
In new biography, 23-year-old singer looks back on his tumultuous time with mega boy band and how he overcame the fear and pressure of striking out on his own
Since he left One Direction, Zayn Malik has been public with his battle with anxiety. But the singer also says he was struggling with even more behind-the-scenes – a possible eating disorder.
Malik made the revelation in his new autobiography Zayn, released this week.
“When I look back at the images of myself from around November 2014, before the final tour, I can see how ill I was,” the 23-year-old writes in the book, calling it an “eating disorder”.
In an interview, Malik says that he was so busy on the road, he would forget to eat.
“I realised that I wasn’t eating as much just down to the amount of work that we were doing ... our schedule was kind of crazy so we were all over the place,” he says.
“It was just more down to losing track of, you know, actually eating and being super busy and getting caught up with other things that 17- or 18-year-olds do, which normally entails them going out, drinking or partying, so it was a mixture of everything.”