While auditioning for the ‘X Factor,’ the 22-year-old singer said that he had no “master plan” about becoming a famous, according to recently surfaced footage.

When asked whether he imagined his life to be the way it is today, he told Rolling Stone magazine in a previously unseen interview from 2012: ‘No, not at all. This isn’t what I thought I was going to be doing. I just went for the experience.

‘I never went with a master plan, thinking, “I want to be famous.” I literally went for an experience thing on the show and just hoped that… I guess I just got lucky.’

According to the Sun, he was never at ease in front of the camera.

“Zayn simply had enough and couldn’t handle it. The lads respected his decision and although it was a tough call, Zayn feels it was the right one. He couldn’t cope with the scrutiny of his private life,” a source told the British daily The Sun.

“Zayn’s been struggling for months and the high level of intensity had taken its toll.

The star also hinted that he was having trouble with the band’s popularity, noting that it was “hard to put into words” how he felt about sparking huge frenzy everywhere he went.

“It’s that thing that we’ve sometimes talked about – when you hear yourself on the radio or see yourself on the front of a magazine – and you sometimes don’t get it; you can’t believe it’s actually happening to you,” he remarked. “Even the girls running down the street still doesn’t really hit you.”

”It’s like, ‘No, they can’t be running for me; for us.’ It’s really strange, and it’s hard to put into words, but it’s almost like you know it’s happening and you know you should believe it, but you almost don’t.”

When asked what he would do if he ever left the band, Zayn said that he would want to stay in music but would prefer a “background” job.

“Even if it wasn’t as public or out there as what we do now, if it was just something even in the background, working as a studio songwriter, producing, that would always be a cool thing to do,” he said.

He also told The Sun today that he only lasted as long as he did because he wanted to be loyal to the band’s fans, and that he attempted to do something he didn’t want to do for a time “for the sake of maybe other people’s happiness”

“And that was mainly the fans. I only ever tried to do it for the fans, and it was only ever for them.