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Zayn Malik has opened up about his split from Little Mix\'s Perrie Edwards to The FADER, claiming he \'loves\' his former fiancée​ and didn\'t break up​ \'over text message\' as reports at the time suggested.

As well as speaking out about leaving One Direction and teasing a snippet of his first solo song \'Befour,\' el Maliko wanted to set the record straight about the demise of Zerrie in a frank chat with The FADER the length of an actual university dissertation; and nothing was off limits. Including those Thailand cheating accusations involving Lauren Richardson originally blamed for his break-up with Pezza.

Cover Story: @zayn\'s next direction. Hit the bio link to read the first of two Now Issue stories from FADER 101, and follow @thefaderuk for exclusives from his cover shoot. Photo by @francesco_nazardo for The FADER.

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Chatting to the mag about the timing of his split, Zayn denied it had anything to do with those cheating rumours at all. He admitted it all came at a time of \'intrusive\' fame, saying: "The two things never really coincided in my mind. Obviously, publicly, that\'s the way it worked, because it worked well for the purpose. Them two stories looked good together side by side. Stories came out because we were in Thailand, and we were out and about. 

"If we were out in Australia, if we were out in India, the same thing would have happened. It was just at a peak where the fame was intrusive and invasive.

"It wasn\'t because of that that I left - that was just a contributing factor to everything. I\'d already made my mind up before that."

So how does he feel about those claims he broke off his engagement with Perrie by text message, eh? WELL, he asked the interviewer: "If you could word it exactly this way, I\'d be very appreciative. I have more respect for Perrie than to end anything over text message. I love her a lot, and I always will, and I would never end our relationship over four years like that. 

"She knows that, I know that, and the public should know that as well. I don\'t want to explain why or what I did, I just want the public to know I didn\'t do that.​"

Well there you go. Zayn\'s had his say on the split, Perrie\'s kept a dignified silence. Who are we to say who\'s in the right or in the wrong? We just sort of witnessed the whole thing unfold with no rhyme or reason.

What d\'ya make of Zayn\'s comments, eh? Excited for his music and that? Jesus CHRIST this is a lot to take in, innit? Give us a tweet over @sugarscape or drop a comment in the box below, please and a-thank you.

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