Exactly one year ago, news broke that Gigi Hadid and her summer boyfriend Joe Jonas broke up. Twenty days later, Us Weekly threw a gossip curveball, exclusively reporting Hadid and her current boyfriend, Zayn Malik, were dating.
And though we've seen and heard a lot about the couple's coupleyness since, we didn't know how the two actually met until Malik told the story to ES magazine this week. He and Hadid first connected at a Victoria's Secret party (the official after-party for the show was November 10, 14 days before Us Weekly reported they were dating).
He went up to her because he recognized her "from her picture" and asked her out. Their first date was at the Bowery Hotel's restaurant Gemma in NYC's East Village.
The night was "really nice," Malik recalled. "She's a very intelligent woman. She knows how to carry herself. She's quite classy and that. She's not, like, arrogant in any way, she's confident. She carries it well. She's cool."
They know each other's families, he said—Hadid spent her 21st birthday with his. Whenever they're in the same place and have free time, they're always together, whether that's in L.A. or in Hadid's NYC apartment. "We haven't officially swapped keys or anything yet; we live together wherever we are," he explained.
Malik cooks the most British dishes for her! "Steak and potato pie, Sunday roast dinner and Yorkshire pudding…she likes a good Yorkshire pudding." They sing! "She's got a nice voice, I like her voice." They drink, him whiskey ("Jameson or Glenfiddich"), her tequila ("spicy margaritas with jalapeños—crazy"). In a nutshell, they are young and in love, all because Malik went up to her at that party.
From: ELLE