"When I look back now, I was so young."
Perrie Edwards has opened up about her past romance with Zayn Malik, admitting she once believed “toxic” behaviour was normal before finding love and stability with her fiancé Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
The Little Mix star appeared on Paul C. Brunson’s We Need To Talk podcast, where she discussed love, heartbreak and how her perspective on relationships has shifted over the years.
Reflecting on her first relationship with Malik, Edwards explained how being young and inexperienced shaped her outlook.
She admitted she initially thought the dynamics they shared were typical of love.
“I think definitely at the time I thought everything we experienced in our relationship was normal,” she said, recalling her early days with the former One Direction singer.
“Because it was my first relationship, first love. I was like, ‘Oh, this is how it’s supposed to feel. It’s supposed to feel a little bit toxic in some ways.’”
The pair first met after competing on The X Factor in 2010 and 2011.
Their whirlwind romance saw them engaged by 2013, though they split two years later in 2015.
The breakup sparked headlines, with claims that Malik ended the engagement by text message and further rumours of infidelity surrounding the separation.
The public scrutiny only heightened the impact on Edwards.
When asked if Zayn was her first love, Perrie responded: “We were engaged to be married, so clearly we had feelings for each other, but I think at that age we thought, ‘this is it.’”
Edwards continued: “But when I look back now, I was so young. How was I to know that was it? Because I didn’t know any different.”
The singer confessed the relationship left her hesitant to date again, fearing another heartbreak.
She described feeling like she never wanted to experience that level of pain again.
“And then when I became single, I was almost thinking, like, ‘I never, ever want to go through that again,’” Edwards admitted. “I didn’t even want to meet anybody.”
That outlook shifted when she met footballer Oxlade-Chamberlain.
The couple have been together since 2016 and welcomed their son, Axel, in 2021, marking a happier chapter in her life.
Edwards described how her new relationship highlighted the contrast with her past experiences.
She noted how Oxlade-Chamberlain’s calm and measured approach to conflict often surprised her in the beginning.
“… I would handle things differently with Alex, and he’d come at it with such a level head that it would throw me,” she revealed, adding how it helped her grow emotionally.
Meanwhile, Malik went on to date supermodel Gigi Hadid, with whom he shares daughter Khai, born in 2020.
The couple split in 2021, ending their high-profile relationship.
As Perrie Edwards reflects on her journey, she is also preparing to launch her debut solo album later this year.
It marks her first musical project since Little Mix went on hiatus in 2022.
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