Cody Simpson feels like he can be himself after splitting from Gigi Hadid.
Cody Simpson
The Australian singer, who amicably split from the 20-year-old model in May after more than a year of dating, admits he was scared of being in such a high profile relationship and thinks being single is "rad."
The 'La Da Dee' hitmaker said: "I'm 18 years old, and I'm sort of going through that time in my life where I'm like a different person every week. You know, when you're going through the phases of being young and discovering yourself and uncovering all the layers, basically.
"Being by myself has just freed up space for me to actually be myself as opposed to half of somebody else, which I think is meant come later in life."
Cody also found it stressful dating someone else in the spotlight.
He told E! News: "It sort of had been so publicised that I got kind of scared and sort of wanted to stay low-key. Being by myself is great because I can be low-key...moving to Venice Beach [California] and be away from anything, [I can] focus on my music, I'm taking up film and photography, skateboarding... It's rad, yeah."
But the singer insists he doesn't regret dating the Sports Illustrated beauty.
He said: "I never regret anything, I've had an amazing last couple of years, but it's amazing to free up a lot of space for me to discover things and be creative, take up some new hobbies and be young."
While Cody is still single, Gigi recently started dating her long-time friend Joe Jonas, 25.
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