One Direction was never Zayn Malik's "kind of bag".
One Direction
The 22-year-old singer quit the group in March and his former bandmates can understand why he chose to leave as his own music tastes were so different.
Liam Payne said: "One Direction was never really Zayn's kind of bag, if you know what I mean. His taste in music was a bit different, and I guess that's kind of what drove him to do what he did in the end, which is not necessarily a bad thing."
Despite Liam admitting it was a "disaster" when Zayn left the group, he thinks things have worked out for the best.
He added in an interview on UK TV show 'Good Morning Britain': "Everyone's come out fine from it, thanks to our beautiful fans. And he's off doing what he loves as well, so both parties are winners in the end of a disaster of a situation. It's all good.' "
Meanwhile, the remaining members of One Direction - Liam, Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles and Niall Horan - are preparing to go on hiatus, but taking a break doesn't mean they won't be seeing one another as the quartet are already planning a holiday together.
Louis said: "There's no doubt we'll see plenty of each other, we're gonna plan to go on a little lads' holiday. Actually it's just the day to day things, we are like a family now, so it's the company that you're used to, it's like leaving school and leaving your friends behind."
And the 'Little Things' hitmakers haven't set a date to get back together.
Asked if they know how long the break is going to be, Louis said: "We don't yet, no. We don't really want to put a time on it because then that puts pressure on us, and we're just going to enjoy this time to do what we want to do."
Tagged in One Direction Zayn Malik Liam Payne