Zayn Malik Says He “Doesn’t Need to Put a Label” on His Relationship With Gigi Hadid in New GQ Interview

It just wouldn’t be a Zayn Malik interview without a question or two (or three, or four . . . ) about Gigi Hadid. Three months after the two confirmed their break-up, Zayn has appeared on his first GQ cover, and in the accompanying profile, he gets candid about his (possibly on-again) relationship with the model.

“We’re still really good friends, and we’re still in contact,” he told GQ. “No bad blood . . . Taylor Swift. We’re adults. We don’t need to put a label on it, make it something for people’s expectations.”

In the interview, Zayn said the two met in late 2015 at a “cool party.” A few days later, he asked her out to dinner at the Bowery Hotel after finding out that she’d broken up with Joe Jonas. “I’m really thankful that I met her,” he told GQ, adding that she was there for him when he was partying too hard while releasing his first solo album. “I had a very negative outlook on things,” he said. “That might have been adolescence or testosterone or whatever the f/*ck was running through my body at the time. She’s helped me to look at things from a positive angle.”

Like when the pair attended the Met Gala together, which Zayn says is “not me” and was entirely his former stylist’s idea. “To do the self-indulgent Look at me, I’m amazing thing on the red carpet, it’s not me,” he said. “I get it, and I understand that people gain enjoyment from it . . . Gi stole the night, though. The stained glass on her dress. Everyone else just put a cross on,” he said referring to the most recent Gala, which he did not attend.

Now, Zayn says, the pair still hang out together, sometimes at his farm, where he and Gigi share a horse named Cool. (“I looked like a complete idiot and she looked like a complete professional,” he said of the first time they rode horses together.) He revealed that buying the farm was the idea of Gigi’s mom, Yolanda Hadid, who he says makes up most of his inner circle, along with the rest of the Hadids. “We get on. She’s really f/*cking cool,” he said. “She’s a Capricorn. She’s the same star sign as me.”

GQ writer Carrie Battan noted that throughout their interview, Zayn referred to himself and Gigi by the term “we” in the present tense multiple times. This isn’t too surprising, considering the pair have been spotted together several times since their break-up, fueling speculation about a Zigi reunion. Two weeks ago, Gigi posted a photo of her and Zayn playing Pokémon together on her Instagram. And back in May, an unnamed source told E! News that Zayn wanted to get back together with Gigi, just a few days after the pair were photographed kissing on the sidewalk on April 30. And just 10 days before that, Zayn was spotted near Gigi’s apartment over the course of two days, wearing the same clothes.

Of course, the exact nature of their relationship is just speculation until one (or both) of them confirms it. As Zayn says, they don’t need to “put a label” on it to suit people’s expectations.

Related: Is Zayn Just Making the Same Music Video Over and Over Again?