"It sounded like one of the things the little girls who send me hate would say. I can deal with what he said but he knows the hate I've had to endure for him is the bit that upset me.
"That's not how I know Zayn to speak, even face to face. I definitely thought at first that he had been hacked. The fat joke thing wasn't necessary and he's getting a lot of backlash for that because a lot of his fans don't look like Selena Gomez. [Sidenote: Er, HARSH?]
"At some point as an artist you have to take responsibility for everything you say. That's why I think Zayn did it out of anger.
"Forget what I've been through, you do have to remember what this guy has been through these last few months and had to deal with. I understand why he could be over-reacting on things and just jumping to conclusions. He is still a young guy who has gone through a lot and I am always going to be there for this guy.
"I'm pretty sure that inside he feels the same. Creative people often act on impulse and we don't always think things through."
He continued on to say he had nothing to do with the Krept & Konan video leak, adding: "Two months ago he was calling me his best friend at the Asian Awards so it's a bit sad.
"Krept called him and explained that I had nothing to do with it. At that time he should have just deleted the tweet. Krept and Konan were very tight with Zayn so they were just as shocked. I think initially when Zayn had tweeted that he had assumed I had leaked. I have never leaked anything of Zayn's. The cover we leaked together. Nothing has been leaked by me. Zayn asked MIC Righteous to write something but it was never going to be used - it was always going to be Krept and Konan - but Mic Righteous decided to put that out himself. The Krept and Konan video was just seven seconds on Snapchat. For me, it's not a big deal because it's not a leak. And we were under the impression that if something is put on Snapchat then it's immediately gone after you've seen it. I don't have Snapchat so I don't understand how it works. We had been working all night so we didn't get up till 5-6pm the day of the tweet. We wondered what all the missed calls and messages were about. I thought someone had died!"
"I definitely think he's had someone whispering in his ear. He has come from a life where everything is planned for you and you are told what to do. You can't just immediately step out of that and this was a haven for him when he left the band. You could see how comfortable he was here."
He also still wants to release their Zaughty stuff because he feels "the songs are close to Zayn's heart," but that he hasn't reached out to him, despite him still calling Malik his friend, because he feels "like Zayn should have called him."
OH, and in case you're wondering, his "Twitter war days are over," (apparently. Hmm) and he doesn't think "Zayn's solo music will be heard until next year."
