Teenage hearts everywhere were simultaneously broken when Zayn Malik announced his official departure from One Direction.
“My life with One Direction has been more than I could ever have imagined. But, after five years, I feel like it is now the right time for me to leave the band,” Zayn said in an official statement. The earth-shattering announcement came on the heels of his departure from the bands South Asian tour leg. This isn’t the first time Zayn has had seconds thoughts about the band- in 2010, Zayn almost quit during X-Factor’s boot camp weeks. Sadly, it seems like this time its very real.
The reason for his departure? “Because I want to be a normal 22-year-old who is able to relax and have some private time out of the spotlight,” Zayn said in his statement. Following intense cheating allegations that came out when Zayn was spotted getting close to a girl who was not his fiancé, Perrie Edwards, its understandable Zayn would be done with the attention being 1/5th of the worlds biggest band brings.
Following the announcement, the Internet had a collective meltdown, with #AlwaysInOurHeartsZaynMalik, #PrayForZayn, AND #ZaynMalik all trending on Twitter. Buzzfeed posted at least a dozen Zayn-quizes, and any Directioner with a social media presence was quick to take them all. The Dow Jones Industrial Average even dropped 1% point, as stockbrokers took a quick cry-break.
Marymounters took to Twitter to talk about the shocking news:
Thankfully, Liam, Niall, Louis and Harry will continue on as a four piece, with a North American tour scheduled for the summer and a new album in the works. The boys released a formal announcement on Facebook thanking Zayn for his years, and assured fans that the band would NOT be breaking up. As fellow HCMMM writer Brooke Materia pointed out to me, this is basically the same thing that happened to the Spice Girls when Geri Halliwell left, and the Spice Girls didn’t break up. If you need more comfort, take solace in the words of my fourteen year old and One Direction super fan sister, Elizabeth: “At least Harry Styles didn’t cut his hair.”