Zayn Malik has been dropped by long-term manager Sarah Stennett, amid claims he’s “challenging to work with”.
The 25-year-old singer, who first found fame as one-fifth of boyband One Direction, had been working with Sarah since 2015, but their professional relationship came to an end on Monday, the music mogul confirmed to Variety.
Sarah, the co-founder of management company First Access Entertainment, told the publication: “Sometimes in life you have to make extremely difficult decisions to effect positive change for everyone.”
Zayn has yet to comment on the news, but sources told Variety that his refusal to tour to promote his last album Mind Of Mine, and his frequent declining of promotional opportunities had a lot to do with him and Sarah parting ways.
He is said to have had a change of heart and agreed to tour to support his upcoming sophomore album, due for release in June, but it seems his decision wasn’t enough to save his relationship with Sarah. A representative for Zayn could not be reached for comment by Variety.
After taking on Zayn as a client, Sarah said that she was determined to make the young star “an important artist”.
“The environment he was in was all about compromise,” she told Billboard magazine three years ago. “My job is simple: Make sure nobody gets in the way of him becoming an important artist.”
Zayn is the second name to leave First Access Entertainment in the past week, as Ellie Goulding made the decision to leave the company after 10 years. She’s now with Tap Management, whose clients include Lana Del Rey and Dua Lipa.
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