Zayn Malik, just days after announcing he had quit One Direction after five years, has opened up about his decision.

Zayn Malik Quits One Direction

Malik parted ways with One Direction after taking a hiatus from the band’s tour due to stress. Though the singer was expected to return to the tour, he went on to reveal that he’d performed his last concert with the group. In the immediate aftermath of the news breaking, Malik has called the ensuing hours “crazy and wild and a bit mad.”

The former boyband member added, “But at the same time I’ve never felt more in control in my life. I feel like I’m doing what’s right, right by myself and right by the boys, so I feel good … I did try to do something that I wasn’t happy doing for a while for the sake of, maybe, other people’s happiness, and that was mainly the fans, and, and I only ever tried to do it for the fans.”

While fans of One Direction – and Malik in particular – have expressed their devastation and disappointment online, Malik says that Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Liam Payne have been nothing but supportive, realizing he needs to explore something that feels more genuine to him.

“They couldn’t be more wrong,” he said of the media speculation that there’s bad blood. “My band has been really supportive. They’ve been cool about it. And they understand that, you know, it’s not real to me anymore.”

“They still wanna do it for a while so they’re gonna carry on doing what they wanna do and I think they’re gonna do okay for a while,” Malik continued, saying he doesn’t know if there’s a possibility that he’d return to the band in any capacity in the future. For now, he’s reportedly working on his solo debut with British producer Naughty Boy.

As for Malik’s relationship with fiancée Perrie Edwards, the singer says that all is well and dismissed rumors that he cheated on her in Thailand.