Where's Zayn? 1D Blame 'Tummy Bug' For His 'Today' No-Show, But Could It Be Something More Serious?
One, two, three, four. Hey, wait a minute, where's Zayn? On the day the world finally got their hands on One Direction's FOUR album, the boys stopped by Universal Orlando Resorts for a chat and a performance on the "Today" show on Monday morning (November 17) -- but Zayn Malik was M.I.A.
Doing the math, "Today" co-host Matt Lauer immediately asked the obvious. "Where is Zayn?"
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"He’s got a tummy bug so he’s not very well," Liam Payne said. "We only found out this morning so we’re really sad, he is as well, that he can’t be here for our album release... It's still going to be a great day, I’m sure."
Lauer, however, dug a bit deeper. "Obviously been a lot of concern, a lot of fans have been tweeting overnight, there's been a lot of action on social media about him. Is it something more serious than just a minor illness?" he asked about Malik, who was also noticeably absent from the video the band recorded to accept their wins for Biggest Fans, Best Pop and Best Live Performance at the 2014 MTV EMA awards show.
"There have been rumors of substance abuse, what's going on?," Lauer pressed.
"No, he's just got a stomach bug. He's OK. He’s just at home. He just needs to rest," Payne said.
With 15,000 1D fans freaking out all around them, Harry Styles, Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan calmly took the questions in stride before performing a mini-set of their greatest hits. A spokesperson for the group could not be reached for further comment on Malik's illness, though the Orlando Sentinel reported that officials had earlier said Zayn had missed his flight to Orlando.
The show must go on, though, so 1D did their thing, performing "Steal My Girl," "Best Song Ever," "What Makes You Beautiful" and "Little Things" like champs.
After his absence was revealed, the #getwellsoonzayn hashtag started trending worldwide and fans left tons of notes for the singer.
Earlier in the morning, the guys released the acoustic version of "Night Changes," the second single off FOUR. If you need your Zayn fix while he's recovering, this is it:
