Former One Direction heartthrob Zayn Malik first joined the British supergroup after narrowly avoiding elimination when he appeared on X Factor in 2010.
He was initially kicked off the show during the preliminary stages, before the judges decided to group him with four other solo artists – Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson – to form One Direction.
The 22-year-old has since experienced staggering success with the group, which became the first band in US Billboard 200 history to have four albums debut at number one and have won 180 awards worldwide.
Born Zain Malik, the young star is 1D’s sole Yorkshireman, hailing from East Bowling, Bradford. He comes from a Muslim family and once tweeted an affirmation of his faith to his millions of followers.
He has been engaged to Little Mix singer Perrie Edwards since 2013 and has her face tattooed on his arm. He was previously linked with another member of the X Factor alumni, Rebecca Ferguson.
Zayn is also One Direction’s least popular member on social media – lagging four and a half million twitter followers behind Louis Tomlinson and almost 10 million behind Harry Styles.
He found himself the subject of considerable public criticism after a video appearing to show him and fellow band member Tomlinson smoking marijuana in Peru surfaced last year.
The pair both apologised and were this week ordered to lodge a £3,000 bond with the Peruvian government, which would be forfeited if they used or promoted the use of the drug during a scheduled show in Manila.
Zayn again courted controversy a few months later by tweeting Free Palestine during the Israel-Gaza conflict in 2014, prompting outrage from some of the group’s Israeli fans.
One tweeted: “It broke me that one of my idols wants me to die.”
Speculation about his future with the band has been mounting since last week when he walked away from their current world tour because he was suffering stress.
It came after a picture of him holding hands with a woman in Thailand appeared online, prompting him to declare his love for Perrie Edwards on Twitter.
Today he apologised to fans for leaving the band altogether, but added that he has to do “what feels right in my heart”.
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