Perrie Edwards makes rare comments on ‘hellish’ Zayn Mailk ordeal and admits ‘overlap’

Perrie Edwards makes rare comments on ‘hellish’ Zayn Mailk ordeal and admits ‘overlap’ Little Mix's Perrie Edwards detailed her 'hellish' split from ex Zayn Malik and suggested there was 'an overlap' with someone else Perrie Edwards has opened up about the “hellish” ordeal she went through following the end of her relationship with Zayn Malik, and seeing him move on with supermodel Gigi Hadid. The Little Mix singer started dating the former One Direction star in 2011, and they announced their engagement two years later - before calling off their romance in 2015. While he started seeing supermodel Gigi soon after, Perrie penned Shout Out To My Ex about their split. In a candid new interview on the Good Company podcast, the 32-year-old - who shares two children with ex Arsenal footballer Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain - detailed suffering “serious breakdowns” after their engagement ended so publicly. “When you go through heartbreak, it is hellish,” she told host Jamie Laing. “It's the worst thing in the world. You can't eat, you can't sleep, you feel horrendous. You feel abandoned and you don't feel good enough. You feel like you've been left for something better. “And then what makes it even worse is, I felt like the world was then looking at me, laughing at me … Not my fans, my fans were like, ‘We love you, we'll fight your corner no matter what.’ But I felt embarrassed. I felt horrified. It was awful.” When asked how she stayed “sane” through the heartbreak, Perrie continued: “I didn't. I had serious breakdowns - because it wasn't just the heartbreak I was dealing with, I was dealing with everybody looking at me, and I felt ridiculed. I just couldn't cope with it. “I hated it. I was breaking down in performances, which isn't like me at all. I was breaking down, I was crying constantly. I think I was depressed.” The Black Magic musician explained that she was feeling overwhelmed by having to be “switched on” and “power through” for her Little Mix bandmates, but just wanted to be “left the f**k alone”. Jamie questioned whether she believed Zayn was also affected by their split and, choosing her words carefully, she suggested there was “a bit of an overlap” between his romances. “I don’t think, at the time… I need to be careful how I say this, but let's just say there was a bit of a... I'm just going to say it. So there was a bit of an overlap,” she declared. “I think, when you're moving on with somebody else, you always get on better. When you're the one left behind, that's when it's hard, because it's like, ‘Oh s**t, they've left me for someone more beautiful than me, someone better than me’. “Whatever it is, that's how it felt at the time. And then you have a song that they've written about you, but then someone else is in the video. It was one thing after the other. “I just remember finding out about that and it was like the nail in the coffin, and I thought, ‘this is all getting a bit much.’ And then I started crying my eyes out. “It was really one thing after the other, and there's so much that people don't know about, that I would never say - even though I've just spilled some beans - but there's so much that went into it that I would never talk about, that I went through.” “It made me realise that that was very unhealthy,” she added. “You can say it was young puppy love or whatever, and you're like whisked away with it. “Now that I've experienced what healthy love is, with Alex, it's so nice. It doesn't make you feel sick to your stomach all the time, it doesn't make you feel icky. It doesn't make you feel like you're not worthy or you're not good enough, or you could be doing everything better. It doesn't feel competitive, it doesn't feel toxic. That's exactly what I would say it was.” Perrie has been with England ace Alex since 2017 - the pair welcomed son Axel into the world in 2021, a year before getting engaged. Earlier this year, they added to their brood with daughter Alanis Valentine. Zayn and Gigi starred in the music video for his debut single, Pillowtalk, in 2015 and they went on to enjoy an on-off romance for six years. They introduced daughter Khai into the world in 2020 but eventually went their separate ways in 2021 . The Mirror has contacted Zayn’s reps for a comment. Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .