Zayn Malik has admitted he’s happy his One Direction days are behind him, because now he can enjoy writing songs about sex.

In an excerpt from his upcoming autobiography Zayn, obtained by NME, the singer says that sex was a subject he could ever touch while in the squeaky-clean boyband.

Zayn MalikZayn Malik is happy he can now talk about sex

“Every lyric I’ve ever written has a story behind it,” he writes. “All the hard work that went into the creation of ‘Pillowtalk’ was worthwhile because, as soon as it was finished, I intuitively felt I was on the right path.

“It was a sick cut, nailing the exact sound I wanted to capture in my music. I was also able to sing about a subject that I hadn’t really been able to go near while I was in One Direction: sex.”

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Zayn’s autobiography hits shelves on November 1st and is described as a ‘collection of thoughts, inspiration, and never-before-seen personal photographs’.

Meanwhile, Zayn’s girlfriend Gigi Hadid, who starred with him in the steamy ‘Pillowtalk’ video, has come under fire for getting her boyfriend’s ethnicity wrong.

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Speaking to Gulf News Gigi, whose father is Palestinian, said: “My boyfriend is also half Middle Eastern. It's just a connection that you make that's really cool."

She added: “It's hard to explain but you feel like you're amongst [your] people.” Gigi was quickly informed by fans on social media that Zayn is actually half-Pakistani, which is part of South Asia and not in the Middle East.