Zayn Malik reveals why he’s raising his and Gigi Hadid’s daughter in Pennsylvania

‘I pretty quickly made up my mind that this would be a great place to raise a child,’ Malik says

Zayn Malik has revealed why he’s chosen to raise his daughter Khai in Pennsylvania.

The 31-year-old singer made the rare comment about his three-year-old daughter, who he shares with ex Gigi Hadid, during an interview with L’Officiel, published on 27 March. Speaking to the magazine, he acknowledged how much he loves the outdoors, which includes his home in rural Pennsylvania.

According to Malik, when he first discovered that Hadid was pregnant, he even knew that he wanted to raise his daughter in this part of the East Coast.

“I pretty quickly made up my mind that this would be a great place to raise a child because there’s so much for her to do here,” he said about Pennsylvania. “So, we do spend a lot of time outside.”

Malik discussed all the exciting things that he and his child do in the rural town, and shared his hope for this place to become something meaningful for both of them.

“So, we do spend a lot of time outside. We do the gardening. She likes to camp with me,” the former One Direction member explained. “We cook outside. We fish a little bit. And she’s really into it, too, so it makes it fun. Hopefully, we can create some amazing memories here.”

Malik also described some of the things about his home that his daughter loves, such as his vegetable garden. He explained that while he first got into gardening when he moved to Pennsylvania seven years ago, his skills have expanded since then, as he quipped that now his “crops are actually edible”.

“So it’s really fun to take her out to the garden and show her the vegetable patch and all the different things in the garden, you know, what she can eat and what she can’t,” he said about Khai.

The “Dusk Til Dawn” singer also detailed how Khai is “really interested in gardening” and “loves raw vegetables”.

“I’ll just find her, like, munching on a piece of broccoli, which is a parent’s worst nightmare, you know?” he joked. “Whatever way you can get veggies into your kids, right?”

He went on to detail his quality time with his daughter, noting that while she doesn’t end up in the recording studio with him – since he’s in there “past her bedtime” – she does understand that her father creates music. Malik added that while his daughter doesn’t frequently talk to him about his music, she does have “a lot of natural ability herself already”.

“I know, it sounds ridiculous because she’s three, but her retention for language, especially when it’s formatted in a musical sense to her, has been amazing. She’ll remember every lyric of every song that she likes,” he explained. “She remembers chord progressions and notes.”

Malik added: “She can do runs that have, like, three, four notes already. I look forward to seeing what she’s going to be capable of doing as she gets older.”

This isn’t the first time that Malik has opened up about living in Pennsylvania. During an appearance on Hot Ones earlier this month, he described how being away from the hustle and bustle of the entertainment business in Hollywood has benefited his career, especially when creating his fourth studio album, Room Under The Stairs.

“I think life in general can influence your writing process,” he explained to host Sean Evans. “You have to live and go through things to have something to talk about. So yeah, it’s definitely has took on the surrounding area of Pennsylvania.”

“It’s got that feel, it’s got the chill, like introspective kind of conscious kind of thing going on,” he continued. “And I’m really excited for people to listen to it because it’s really different from anything I’ve ever done before, it’s super personal.”