Liam Payne has come under fire for an interview in which he discussed his former One Direction bandmates.
Five years after forming on The X Factor, the pop band – Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, and Payne – announced an extended hiatus in August 2015.
Since then, the singers have focused on their respective solo careers and rarely go into detail about their time in One Direction.
Payne sat down for a lengthy interview with controversial YouTuber Logan Paul on Wednesday (1 June), where he spoke about why he “dislikes” former bandmate Malik, along with a moment where he claimed one of his bandmates “threw” him “up a wall”.
Appearing to try and caveat his remarks, Payne said: “If I had to go through what he went through – with his growth and whatever else. My parents are overly supportive to the point where it’s annoying at times. Zayn had a different upbringing in that sense.
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“You can always look at the man for where he is and say: ‘Oh yeah, whatever, that guy’s a d**k.’
“But at the end of the day, once you’re understanding what he’s been through to get to that point – and also whether or not he wanted to be there.”
(Impaulsive/YouTube)
Appearing to reference Malik’s alleged altercation with his ex-girlfriend Gigi Hadid’s mother, Yolanda, Payne said: “Listen, I don’t agree with any of his actions.
“I can’t commend some of the things that he’s done. I can’t be on his side for that. What I can say is I understand and your only hope is that at some point in their life, the person at the other end of the phone wants to receive the help that you’re willing to give them.”
Payne also recalled a time when “there was an argument backstage and one member (unnamed), in particular, threw me up a wall”.
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“So I said to him, ‘If you don’t remove those hands, there’s a high likelihood you’ll never use them again,” he said.
Payne’s name began trending on Twitter shortly after the interview was released, as fans criticised him for talking “crap” about his former bandmates.
“Hey, no hate! But this is me trying to figure out how Liam Payne could say such bad things about certain 1D members when they literally gave him a career through One Direction, he didn’t make it through x factor by himself for a reason,” one person wrote on Twitter.
One lengthy comment on YouTube said: “I’ve been a fan of One Direction since 2012 so you can imagine my excitement when i saw this podcast… I have to say it is so weird to watch liam... saying so much crazy s*** is a bit disappointing.
“What he said about Zayn, which he has no place talking about since they don’t even have a relationship anymore so he couldn’t know anything about what actually happened, saying he has more streams than the other four in their solo careers when the most streamed out of the band are Harry (obviously) and Zayn – Liam is not even second.”
(Jason Merritt/Getty)
She added: “Like, I know all people care about is the dark side of it and we are all aware there were so many bad sides of One Direction but honestly today, 10 years later it seems a little unnecessary to keep s****ing on the best opportunity of your life.”
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“Liam Payne going onto Logan Paul’s podcast and calling Zayn Malik a d**k is not something I thought would happen today but here we are,” one person wrote on Twitter.
The Independent has contacted Malik’s representative for comment.