He’s back! Zayn Malik just broke his social media silence and posted a new photo for the first time in almost two months, and fans are pretty excited about it.

Taking to Instagram on Friday, July 31, the former One Direction member shared a selfie with no caption. The new pic has already racked up more than four million likes and thousands of comments!

As fans know, his return to social media comes just days after 1D celebrated their 10-year anniversary. And some people were quick to point out at the time that Zayn didn’t say anything about it online. His other former bandmates — Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan — all posted touching tributes for the big day, but when the “Pillowtalk” crooner stayed silent, some people were not happy.

Why is Zayn being so quiet about the 10-year anniversary? Like has he even acknowledged it or?” one fan wrote on Twitter, with another adding, “The way Zayn was quiet about this One Direction 10-year anniversary. Not even a tweet,” with some crying emojis.

A source told The Sun, “Zayn is of course grateful for One Direction for giving him the platform it did, but he’s a solo artist now. He’s working on new music and wants to cut ties so he’s taken seriously in his own lane.”

For those who forgot, the singer announced that he was leaving the band in the middle of their On the Road Again Tour in March 2015.

“My life with One Direction has been more than I could ever have imagined. But, after five years, I feel like it is now the right time for me to leave the band,” he wrote in an emotional post at the time. “I’d like to apologize to the fans if I’ve let anyone down, but I have to do what feels right in my heart. I am leaving because I want to be a normal 22-year-old who is able to relax and have some private time out of the spotlight.”

But in the years that followed Zayn’s departure, a lot went down between him and his former bandmates. The 27-year-old went on to give multiple interviews about his decision to leave 1D, where he shaded the band left and right. Zayn even admitted that he never wanted to be in the group at all, explaining that their style of music “wasn’t his cup of tea.” Ouch!

“Our relationships have definitely changed since we were in a band together, but I think that’s just life. Everybody grows up. Two of the guys have got kids now. But no, I don’t talk to any of them, really,” Zayn told Billboard in 2017.

The musician also explained in a 2018 interview, “I ain’t spoke to any of them for a long time, to be honest with you. That’s just the way it is. There’s things that happen and things that were said after I left… Snide things. Small things that I would never have expected.”

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