Perrie Edwards thought she was "done with men forever" because she didn't want to endure the "pain of heartbreak" after the end of her "toxic" relationship with Zayn Malik. The Little Mix singer began dating the former One Direction star while she was on The X Factor in 2011, and they got engaged in 2013. However, they called off their engagement two years later. Reflecting on the relationship on the We Need to Talk podcast on Tuesday, the Forget About Us singer - who never mentioned Zayn by name - admitted that their romance was "a little bit toxic" but she didn't know it at the time. "I think definitely at the time I thought everything we experienced in our relationship was normal. Because it was my first relationship, first love," she shared. "I was like, 'Oh, this is how it's supposed to feel. It's supposed to feel a little bit toxic, in some ways. This is probably normal.'" The 32-year-old revealed that she swore off dating after the split because she couldn't bear the thought of navigating heartbreak in the public eye again, noting that it was "mortifying" the first time. "I was almost thinking like I never, ever want to go through that again. I didn't even want to meet anybody. I was like, that's me done. I don't think I could bear that pain. Like the pain of heartbreak is so grim that I remember thinking I'm done with men forever," she recalled. When asked how the romance affected her later relationships, she said with a laugh, "Probably not good." Remembering the early days of her relationship with footballer Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in 2017, Perrie continued, "I would handle things differently with Alex, and he'd come at it with such a level head that it would throw me." She explained that she'd expect him to "kick off" about something, but he's "not the type to get mad or angry or get funny about things". The star then agreed with host Paul C Brunson's assessment that she felt like she was walking on eggshells with Zayn. Perrie and Alex welcomed their first child, a son called Axl, in 2021 and got engaged the following year. Zayn shares a four-year-old daughter, Khai, with his ex-girlfriend Gigi Hadid.