Zayn Malik furious Gigi Hadid bullied after 'racist' Buddha video

An old clip showing her mimicking Buddha surfaced online, angering her Chinese fans.

Model Gigi Hadid (L) and singer Zayn Malik in the Manhattan borough of New York
Model Gigi Hadid (L) and singer Zayn Malik Reuters

Zayn Malik is trying to be the best boyfriend after Gigi Hadid received backlash after 'racist' Buddha video. An old clip showing her mimicking Buddha surfaced online, angering her Chinese fans.

In the shot posted by Bella Hadid, Gigi is seen holding up a Buddha shaped figure, and imitating the religious figure by squinting her eyes. A source told Hollywood Life: "Zayn is furious people are accusing Gigi of being racist. He's begging her to let him go on a Twitter rant defending her but she's asked him to stay quiet for now. She doesn't want him feeding the trolls."

"She's getting everyone's advice on how to handle this and most people are telling her to just ignore it and let it die down," the insider added.

Another source shared: "Anyone that knows her knows she doesn't have a racist bone in her body. She's distraught over this, she's been crying a lot because she feels like no matter what she says, she can't change these people's minds and that really hurts."

After the video went viral, Gigi cleared her side by sending a direct message to a fan. She wrote: "The photo that was taken from the video was taken out of context and attached to a headline to make it something that it definitely wasn't."

"It saddens me that people were hurt because someone else created a story line of what happened there.. and that it will somewhat stick around because it's on the internet but all I can do to prove myself is to show people who I am. I spent time in China right before and had a great time, and I show & have nothing but appreciation and respect to my Asian fans! I hope people can judge me from their own experience of me and realize that others can twist anything on social media to make a scenario where there really wasn't one."

"I can't wait to be back and spread love and let anyone who's skeptical see me for me," she concluded.