The pressures of boyband notoriety and endless media hounding appear to have conquered One Direction’s Zayn Malik, who has been signed off the band’s current world tour with stress.
According to One Direction’s publicist, the singer is returning home despite having three dates in Asia scheduled for this week. “Zayn has signed off with stress and is flying back to the UK to recuperate,” says the group’s spokesperson. “The band wish him well and will continue with their performances in Manila and Jakarta.”
Aside from the obvious pressures of being part of the biggest boyband in the world, Malik was the subject of two news stories which surfaced this week. The first concerned matters regarding his relationship with Little Mix’s Perrie Edwards, after he was pictured holding hands with another woman while in Thailand. On 18 March, Malik publicly apologised to his fiancée:
I'm 22 years old... I love a girl named Perrie Edwards. And there's a lot of jealous fucks in this world I'm sorry for what it looks like x
— zaynmalik1D (@zaynmalik) March 18, 2015
Today it was also discovered that he and bandmate Louis Tomlinson were required to post bonds worth roughly $5,000 (£3,300) each ahead of their forthcoming shows in the Philippines. The country’s immigration bureau said they would forfeit the bond if they were caught using or promoting the use of illegal drugs during their visit – an action no doubt prompted by the past leak of a video made while on tour in Peru in 2014 which featured the One Direction members joking about a “joint” as they smoke what looks like a rolled-up cigarette.
One Direction found fame after finishing third in the UK’s 2010 series of The X Factor, behind runner-up Rebecca Ferguson and winner Matt Cardle. A cultural phenomenon, they became the first band in the US Billboard 200 history to have their first four albums debut at No 1, and their third album, Midnight Memories, was the biggest-selling album worldwide of 2013 .
