Selena Gomez has reportedly been spotted holding hands with and kissing former One Directioner Zayn Malik.
The 30-year-old singers were dining at a swanky restaurant in New York on Thursday this week (March 23), where they were apparently seen canoodling and getting rather intimate, according to Sky News.
Gomez herself has been linked to several other celebrities since breaking up with Justin Bieber for the final time in 2018 - including Drew Taggart from The Chainsmokers.
As for Malik, he was last publicly linked to 27-year-old supermodel Gigi Hadid, with whom he shares two-year-old daughter Khai.
Malik and Hadid split in 2021 after the British singer was reportedly physically violent towards Hadid's mother, Yolanda. He was sentenced to 360 days probation by a Pennsylvania court, BBC News detailed at the time.
News of Malik and Gomez's intimate dinner date went viral after a TikToker posted a short clip claiming that the pair had walked into a restaurant where her friend worked "hand in hand" and "making out." The user - who goes by the handle @klarissa.mpeg - stated that both she and her friend work as hostesses at popular celebrity hotspots in New York.
The woman then included screenshots of texts her friend sent her, where she wrote: "Tell me how Selena Gomez and Zayn just walked into [restaurant] hand in hand making out and I seated them."
In the TikTok, the user then continues by saying that she wanted to check if the budding couple follow each other on Instagram - and, after some digging, she discovered they did. Gomez was one of just 18 people followed by Malik, while Malik was one of the 250 people Gomez followed.
Gomez has always been open about her love life following her highly publicized and painful split from Bieber - telling ELLE in November last year that she is hopeful she will one day find love again.
"Being in moments in my life, whether it was my health or personal life, friendships, relationships, I feel like giving myself completely to something is just the best way I can love," she admitted. "But I never wanted the pain that I endured to put some sort of guard on myself and armor, if you will.
"And I never, I never let that happen because I still believe, and I still hope, I hope for love, and I hope for healing, and I hope for change. And I never wanna lose that," Gomez added. "Of course, there are days where I feel so far away, but I would rather continue to get my heart broken than to not feel at all."
