Zayn Malik says his two-year-old daughter Khai has brought “colour” back into his life.

The former One Direction singer, 30, had his only child with ex-girlfriend Gigi Hadid, 28, from whom he split in October 2021, and has now given a rare insight into how he’s been impacted by parenthood.

In his first interview in six years, Zayn told the ‘Call Her Daddy’ podcast:

“Since I’ve had my daughter the main thing in my life is trying to be a good example to her. That’s why I’m even doing this interview.

“I used to get a lot of anxiety around doing a conversation like this but I want her to be able to look at me and say, ‘My dad’s doing this.’

“I keep being told I'm telling dad jokes and I’m leaning into it it’s okay, it’s cool.

“People just look at me like I’m a weirdo and I’m like, ‘Well, I’m a dad now so I’m allowed to tell these jokes!’

“I think we all get to a certain point in adult life where everything sort of seems vague and grey and boring and she’s brought that colour back to my life for me.”

The podcast episode will be released in full on Wednesday (12.07.23), and Zayn also addresses in the episode the effect global fame had on him after he joined One Direction with bandmates Louis Tomlinson, 31, and Harry Styles, Liam Payne, and Niall Horan, all 29.

He quit the band in 2015, leaving it to continue as a fourpiece, and said about his time with the group: “I feel like we were so overexposed in the band that like that is why I have taken the time away to not do interviews.”

“They just said to me, ‘Oh, you can be the mysterious one,’ but it wasn’t necessarily my personality – I’m just chill.

“Some people have very high energy personalities and it’s just not the way I am.”