Zayn Malik has opened up about his past struggles with an eating disorder.

In freshly published excerpts from his new autobiography, Zayn, the singer recalls how “ill” he used to look while in One Direction. “I'd just go for days - sometimes two or three days straight - without eating anything at all,” he writes.

“Something I've never talked about in public before, but which I have come to terms with since leaving the band, is that I was suffering from an eating disorder”.

Although he doesn’t clarify whether or not the affliction was officially diagnosed, Zayn is no stranger to the struggles that come with worldwide fame. Earlier in the year, he pulled out of performing at Capital Summer Time ball, admitting that the “magnitude of the event” and made him suffer the “worst anxiety” of his career.  

Speaking to Dazed previously, Zayn reflected on the public’s perception of artists. “I know that musicians are seen as one-sided people a lot of the time,” he stated. “But we do have other elements to us as well. I didn’t feel good. Do you know what I mean? And if you don’t feel good… you need to be able to express what it is that you are. I’m free at last.”

Zayn, which blends personal stories, drawings and never-before-seen photographs from the star, is available to buy now from Random House.