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Zayn Malik has clarified comments he made in November last year about having suffered from an eating disorder.
The star had previously said that while he was still in One Direction that he’d go for two or three days without eating anything at all.
“It wasn’t specifically an eating disorder,” he told The Sunday Times Style. “It was a control thing. Every area of my life was so regimented and controlled. It was the one area where I could say, ‘No, I’m not eating that.'”
Control issues have often been cited as an underlying issue of eating disorders, as sufferers use food as a means of regaining control with intense emotions or difficult circumstances.
Malik explained that he overcome his issues by returning to the UK to be taken care of by his mother in Bradford.
“Once I got over the control, the eating just came back into place, super naturally,” he said. “I came back to the UK and spent some time with my mum and got some TLC, and she cooked me food and I got back in touch, mentally, with a lot of the things I’d lost.”
He has also struggled with anxiety, but says that talking publicly about his problems helped him to overcome them.
“People saw strength in that, and they didn’t seem to expect it from a guy, but they expect it from a female, which to me is crazy,’ he said. “We’re all human. People are often afraid to admit difficulties, but I don’t believe that there should be a struggle with anything that’s the truth.”
He now has extra support from girlfriend Gigi Hadid, who he’s been dating for over a year. The couple now live together and she’s met his family a few times.
“I call her Gee, she calls me Zee,” he said. “There’s some other nicknames too, but I’ll keep those private.”
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