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Zayn Malik Reveals Eating Disorder: "I Think It Was About Control"

"Food was something I could control—so I did."

Zayn Malik made headlines earlier this year when he quit One Direction to start a solo career, but now he reveals the toll of being in the iconic boyband was greater than he let on.

In his new autobiography, Zayn, the singer revealed he'd been suffering from an eating disorder in 1D's final months.

"When I look back at images of myself from around November 2014, before the final tour, I can see how ill I was," the 23-year-old writes. "Something I've never talked about in public before, but which I have come to terms with since leaving the band, is that I was suffering from an eating disorder."

He adds that it wasn't a fixation on his weight, so much as having something he could control.

"I didn’t feel like I had control over anything else in my life, but food was something I could control, so I did."

Malik says he'd go for two or three days without eating. "It got quite serious," he confesses, "although at the time I didn't recognize it for what it was."

He's now "a bit older and a bit more wiser" when it comes to his nutrition and eating habits, he says.

In Zayn, available now, Malik also details his struggle with anxiety, which he cites as the reason for canceling his debut solo show last June.

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