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Zayn Malik and Gigi Hadid are celebrating their daughter's 4th birthday, and for the first time, fans of the former couple can breathe easy. The model confirmed in a social media post that their little one's full name includes Zayn's last name. In a carousel of snaps from Khai's celebrations, a photo showed a "Descendants"-themed scroll that read her name, "Khai Malik."
Fans of Zayn immediately reacted to the revelation as Hadid never mentioned her daughter's surname in the past. "The 'Khai Malik' makes me so happy!!!!" a person wrote. "KHAI MALIK STOP IM SOBBING 🥹," another commented. "Can't believe she's already 4!!! Happiest birthday Khai Malik 💖💖."
The intimate party featured the birthday girl in pink cowboy boots enjoying a Yoda-themed birthday cake that read, "May the FOURce Be With You." Guests were also treated to an arts-and-crafts table and an ice cream bar, where Khai was spotted adding colorful sprinkles to her chocolate treat.
"Our girl is 4 today and we celebrated all week!!!" the model captioned the photos. "She loves animals (fantastical ones too), music, baby yoda, all things nature & bugs, Descendants, anything squishy or miniature, and if possible- will be in the water from dawn til dusk. 🐬.” Hadid said her and Zayn's daughter is "curious, adventurous, loving, and oh so witty," adding, "Khai—it is my life's greatest joy and pride to be your mama!!!!"
"Thank you for the four best years of my life- you remind me to live life to the fullest every day, in the most simple & beautiful ways. Your possibilities are endless, my sweetest love !!!! 🦄🪱🧁🪐🥑🧜♀️🐣🎸🏖️ YODA BEST 💚🩷.”
Zayn Malik, 31, also shared a birthday message to Khai. "Happy birthday to the most important person in my life, I love you more than words allow me to express, beyond proud to call you my daughter," he wrote. "Four years ago today my life changed forever and I wouldn't be the man I am today without you."
Hadid and Zayn Malik were in an on-and-off relationship from 2015 to 2021. They welcomed their daughter, Khai, in 2020. The exes officially called off their romance in October 2021 after an alleged incident with Gigi's mom, Yolanda Hadid.
Raising Khai away from the spotlight
The British singer, who is very private, has been sharing small tidbits of his life as a dad. In a new interview, he revealed why he decided to raise his daughter away from the spotlight. “I’m quite an outdoorsy person—I did fall in love with the landscapes and serenity,” he told L’Oficiel, sharing that he spends most of his time at home, in rural Pennsylvania.
“You get a lot of time to really think about things. And when I found out that my partner at the time was pregnant, I pretty quickly made up my mind that this would be a great place to raise a child because there's so much for her to do here,” he said. “So, we do spend a lot of time outside. We do the gardening. She likes to camp with me. We cook outside. We fish a little bit. And she’s really into it, too, so it makes it fun.”
Malik also shared that Khai understands that he’s a performer. “She doesn’t come to the studio, but she’s starting to understand that Baba sings and Baba does music. She asks everybody, whenever there’s a song on the radio, ‘Is my Baba singing?’ But in front of me, she kind of gets shy about it,” he said.
In 2021, Gigi Hadid asked the press and various fan accounts to blur her daughter’s face to protect her privacy. "As our baby grows up we have to realize that we can't protect her from everything the way we wanted to and could when she was smaller," she wrote in an Instagram story. "Our wish is that she can choose how to share herself with the world when she comes of age, and that she can live as normal of a childhood as possible, without worrying about a public image that she has not chosen. It would mean the world to us, as we take our daughter to see and explore NYC and the world, if you would PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE blur her face out of the images, if and when she is caught on camera."