Zayn Malik and Gigi Hadid, who share 2-year-old daughter Khai, broke up in late 2021 amid reports he’d gotten into an argument with her mom Yolanda Hadid at the Pennsylvania home he shared with the model. According to a police report obtained by E! News that year, Zayn was accused of acting with “intent to harass, annoy or alarm” Gigi (who was not present) and Yolanda, while allegedly communicating “lewd, lascivious, threatening or obscene words.” At the time, Zayn denied the accusations and issued a statement, saying in part that he remained “vigilant” in protecting their daughter by giving her “the privacy she deserves.”

Nearly two years later, the singer stands by his statement.

“I knew what the situation was, I knew what happened and the people involved knew what happened too,” he told Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper. “And that’s all I really cared about. If anybody of the same mind would look at the situation, I believe that you could respect that I just didn’t want to bring attention to anything. I just wasn’t trying to get into a negative back and forth with her—any sort of narrative online where my daughter was going to look back and be able to read into it and it would just be something, there was no point.”

As Zayn explained, he believes he dealt with the situation “in an amicable, respectful way.”

“And that’s all that needs to be said,” he continued. “I just I feel like it’s a lot of negativity.”