"Zayn is married" might have become a trending topic on Twitter in the past 24 hours, but fans of Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik shouldn't send their congratulations just yet.
The couple, who welcomed daughter Khai last September, were mistakenly believed to have tied the knot after a musician claimed the former One Directioner was married.
Singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson, who has collaborated with Malik on her new track To Begin Again, set the rumour mill spinning during an Instagram live stream on Monday.
"We've never met, I've never spoken to him," she said about Malik, after asked by a fan how they remotely crafted the track.
"Zayn doesn't do stuff he doesn't want to do, and the fact that he did this song is very flattering. He's such a private person and now he's married and has a child, so, he does the things he wants to do."
Malik, 28, and Hadid, 25, have been in an on-and-off relationship since 2015, but have never confirmed an engagement, let alone a wedding.
However, after Michaelson's comments, speculation ran rife, with fans sharing their congratulations on social media.
Michaelson was also inundated with requests to verify her claim, leading the singer to later clarify, "I was wrong".
"I talked about my new song, To Begin Again, featuring Zayn on my Patreon live stream, and I might have said he was married," she said in an Instagram Story on Tuesday.
"He’s not married. So, all you Zayn fans, I’m so sorry I have brought you on this roller coaster of emotions. I was mistaken. He’s not married. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Neither Hadid nor Malik had commented on the rumours.
The couple broke up for a period in 2018, but it was confirmed they were back together in December 2019. News of Hadid's pregnancy was first revealed in April 2020, before their firstborn made her appearance in September.
Hadid told Vogue in February that she welcomed Khai at her family's rural property in Pennsylvania, US, with Malik, mother Yolanda, sister Bella and a midwife on hand.
"I had to dig deep. I knew it was going to be the craziest pain in my life, but you have to surrender to it and be like, 'This is what it is'. I loved that," she said.
"I know my mum and Zayn and Bella were proud of me, but at certain points I saw each of them in terror," she continued. "Afterward, Z and I looked at each other and were like, 'We can have some time before we do that again.'"
