Zayn Malik & Gigi Hadid: A Complete Relationship Timeline

It’s been a long road for Zayn Malik and Gigi Hadid. There have been highs and lows, on-agains and off-agains.

Throughout all the many iterations of Zigi, they’ve been one of the sweetest — and possibly most gorgeous — celeb pairings ever. 

Related: Katy Perry & Orlando Bloom Relationship Timeline

Join us for a (very comprehensive!) stroll down memory lane as we revisit all of the power couple’s best moments.

FALL 2015: The Birth of Zigi

Just weeks after Gigi broke up with Joe Jonas — and a few short months after Zayn ended his engagement to Little Mix’s Perrie Edwards (in rather dramatic fashion that allegedly left her homeless), the rumor mill swung into action about the potential hot new couple we’d come to know as Zigi.

Despite pap pics of the pair hanging out and even holding hands, sources said they weren’t yet an “official” item. 

Gigi later dished to Ellen Degeneres about how the romance began: after meeting at a mutual friend’s birthday party, the former One Direction star was supposed to come see her walk the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, but bailed.

The stars managed to align when the couple had their first date a few days later. “We played it cool for about 10 minutes. Then I was like, ‘You’re really cute,'” The model said. “We connected really quickly. We kind of have the same sense of humor, and just started sharing videos.”

WINTER 2016: Pillowtalk

Despite the fact that Zayn went on the record that he and Gigi were “just friends” in January, all evidence pointed to the contrary.

They seemed inseparable as they were spotted out and about in NYC. A pap pic of Gigi proved she had her man’s face as her phone screen, and she celebrated his birthday with an Instagram post that read “ZDAY ?”. At one point, they even seemed to be apartment hunting together.

Of course, there was no use pretending once the lead single off Zayn’s solo debut came out. The steamy Pillowtalk music video featured none other than Miz Hadid herself getting cozy with the singer. The suggestive lyrics had us all imagining the hot new couple in bed all day, bed all day…

If the video wasn’t convincing enough, the couple celebrated its release with a flirty Twitter exchange. 

SPRING 2016: Vogue & The Met Gala

In Spring of 2016, the pair left all that “just friends” stuff behind and took things to the next level. After some PDA and pet pics, Zigi proved what a model couple they were with their first-ever Vogue shoot. It was romantic! It was sexy! It was… acrobatic!

Gigi kept stans fed with more adorable Instagrams (and Zayn stepped up his boyfriend game with an amazing horse cake for Gigi’s 21st birthday), but the pièce de résistance was the couple’s red carpet debut on the first Monday in May.

They gave us futuristic chic for the “Manus x Machina” Met Gala theme, complete with metal arms for Zayn. It was the golden — or maybe we should say silver — age of Zigi!

SUMMER 2016: Breakup Rumors

In June 2016, Zigi faced breakup rumors for the first — but not nearly the last — time.

The rumors were extremely short lived, however, as the couple was spotted leaving Gigi’s apartment and spending time out in NYC. The model went so far as to publicly declare her love for the singer after he canceled a performance due to anxiety.

“Your bravery in those times makes me proud, but your honesty last night proved what you’re all about, being human. … Love you and so proud of you always,” she wrote on Twitter.

FALL 2016: Fashion Weeks

In the Fall of 2016, the fashion-forward duo made appearances all over the world for various cities’ Fashion Weeks. The stylish couple rocked Versace in London and sat front row for Givenchy in Paris. Zayn flew solo to the Tom Ford show in New York — but only because Gigi was walking the runway.

WINTER 2017:Celebrations

The loved-up couple courted engagement rumors in January 2017 as they celebrated the release of I Don’t Wanna Live Forever (Zayn’s collab with Gigi BFF Taylor Swift) and Zayn’s 24th birthday.

“so lucky to know and love a soul like yours ☄wishing you the best year ever!!!” Gigi wrote on Instagram. 

 

Gigi also courted controversy in February after footage surfaced where she appeared to be mocking Asian people. Zayn was quick to come to his girl’s defense over the accusations of racism. In response to a fan’s query on Twitter, he wrote: “trust me.. she likes asians ;)”

SPRING 2017: Artist & Muse

If the Pillowtalk music video was any indication, Zayn clearly drew a lot of musical inspiration from Gigi. But in March 2017, the model flipped the script by making the former boy-bander her muse. She photographed the popstar for Versus Versace SS17, captioning the pic on Instagram, “My man by me”. 

 

Zigi also spent the spring showing off their sexiness, strolling the City of Love, and celebrating Gigi’s 22nd birthday.

SUMMER 2017: Vogue Cover Backlash

 

Z & G made serious power moves by appearing in a second Vogue shoot — and this time, they made the cover.

There was one little problem, though: the issue was gender-fluid themed, and neither star was actually gender fluid. The mag faced serious backlash for the decision, and ended up apologizing for “[missing] the mark”. 

 

The controversy didn’t seem to worry the cover stars too much. (At least, not any more than normal.) They closed out the summer celebrating the Islamic holiday Eid with both of their families — a HUGE step for the pair. Yolanda Hadid even posted a pic of the couple with both their mamas (above). Adorable!

FALL 2017: Two-Year Anniversary

The duo got festive in Fall 2017 with complementary (and impressive) Marvel Halloween costumes. Zayn went as Spiderman, while Gigi dressed up as “Spidey’s girl”, aka Felicia Hardy, The Black Cat. 

 

November 2017 saw the second anniversary of Zigi. Gigi celebrated by posting a PDA-filled snapchat with the caption, “2 yrs with my favorite human.”

WINTER 2018: New Ink

Gigi posted some never-before-seen pics of the couple for Zayn’s birthday in January 2017, with the caption:

“love this man more than I could ever put into words, & am inspired by his drive to be and do better everyday ✨ cheers to YOUR YEAR my @zayn – happiest happiest birthday & 25th year of life !! I’m proud to be by your side x”

She also posted a “birthday boogie” that turned heads due to what looked like Gigi’s eyes tattooed onto Zayn’s chest. Guess he didn’t learn anything the first time around!

SPRING 2018: The First Breakup

The eyes tattoo felt premature pretty fast when the couple had their first official breakup in March.

Zayn unfollowed Gigi and her mom, then posted a confirmation of the split on Twitter (above). Gigi followed suit with her own statement, writing, “I’m forever grateful for the love, time, and life lessons that Z and I shared. I want nothing but the best for him and will continue to support him as a friend that I have immense respect and love for.”

pic.twitter.com/dEDHlyH8P3

— Gigi Hadid (@GiGiHadid) March 13, 2018

 

And so spelled the end of Zigi… until the very next month, when Z was seen leaving Gigi’s apartment and the couple was spotted piling on the PDA. Like the model said in her statement, “whatever’s meant to be will always be”!

SUMMER 2018: Zigi 2.0

Zayn claimed the couple weren’t using labels for Zigi 2.0, but by June they were both back to posting lovey-dovey pics all over social media.

In July, Gigi went toe-to-toe with some trolls who claimed the relationship was fake because the singer didn’t follow her on IG. She shut down speculation with the ultimate trump card: “for someone who is virtually inactive on the app, I don’t need his follow- my eyes are tattooed on his chest.” Oh SNAP!

The duo solidified their reunion by celebrating Eid with Zayn’s family (above). It seemed that Zigi was headed towards happily ever after…

WINTER 2018/19: The Second Breakup

And yet, after a quiet fall, break up rumors started swirling around the pair once more. In December, Gigi chatted about cooking for Zayn for an issue of W Magazine (“My favorite thing with cooking is to always try to make something new. I will ask my boyfriend Zayn Malik, ‘What do you want today?’ and I’m pretty good at pulling it off,” she said).

But by the end of the month, fans were pretty sure the on-again, off-again couple was once again off. The death of Zigi 2.0 was confirmed in January 2019.

SPRING/Summer 2019: Struggling Apart

The second Zigi break up lasted a lot longer than the first, and Zayn did NOT seem to handle it well. That spring he was all over Twitter, randomly tweeting “love you” at his ex (to no reply) and explaining that one of his bracelets was his favorite because Gigi bought it for him. After Gigi was spotted out with pal Samuel Krost, the popstar went on a rant that fans believed was directed at his ex: 

“How about you all go fuck yourselves with your irrelevant bullshit ??”
“This ain’t a place for feelings.”
“And you aren’t the person you said you were,”

The singer later clarified that the tweets were not about Gigi in another expletive-filled Twitter tear:

“To any dumb f**k out there that wants to make they’re own stories up”
“My tweet was not about @GiGiHadid so leave her the f**k alone she is the most amazing woman I’ve ever known”
“And does nothing but love and support me when lord knows I don’t deserve it”
“So if you have anything to say @ me and I’ll put you the f**k straight”
“If you know nothing shut your f**king mouth”

When the model later began dating Bachelorette star Tyler Cameron, Zayn wisely kept quiet on social media.

FALL/WINTER 2019: Reunion Hints

Soon after Gigi broke things off with her Bachelorette beau in October 2019, news got out that Zayn and Gigi were “back in touch” and “on good terms.”

Based on the couple’s on-and-off history, it didn’t seem like too much of a stretch to hope for another reunion. In December, Gigi seemed to hint as much, posting an IG story gushing about a recipe from Zayn’s mom Tricia Malik (above). 

WINTER 2020: Zigi 3.0

By early 2020, birthday outings and social media posts confirmed that Zigi 3.0 was on! In fact, Gigi’s Valentine’s Day “Gisposable” proved the couple had been seeing each other since at least December.

 

In February, Gigi followed up her iconic “my eyes are tattooed on his chest” with another defense for the history books. When Jake Paul tried to start beef with Zayn after an encounter in Vegas, Gigi clapped back:

“Home alone with his best friends like a respectful king cause he has me, sweetie. Unbothered by your irrelevant ugly ass. Go to bed …”

Paul quickly deleted his tweet and issued an apology. The power of Zigi was stronger than ever!

SPRING 2020: Baby Makes Three

When the coronavirus crisis hit the US, people were dying for some good news. In comes Zigi: the couple completely won quarantine with their incredible bombshell — they’re having their first child together!

Rumors of a pregnancy spread like wildfire after the couple celebrated Gigi’s birthday in isolation with her family. TMZ even broke the news that the young lovers were expecting a baby girl. The family confirmed the news not long after; Yolanda gushed about becoming a grandmother, and Gigi told Jimmy Fallon:

“Obviously, we wished we could have announced it on our own terms but we’re very excited and happy and grateful for everyone’s well wishes and support… Especially during this time, it’s a nice silver lining to be able to be home and be together and really experience it day by day.”

With a baby on the way, fans soon began speculating that the power couple might be engaged — and based on Zayn’s new ink, they may be right!

— georgethejeweler on Instagram story pic.twitter.com/J1Lnb1dH9T

— Zayn Malik Updates (@ZaynReport) May 2, 2020

Whatever the case may be, it really does seem like Zigi is meant to be. We’re excited to see what the future will bring for this gorgeous pair and their new baby girl!!!

[Image via Gigi Hadid/Instagram]