Liam Payne headed in a direction no one was expecting when he sat down to discuss his former bandmate Zayn Malik in an interview with disgraced YouTuber Logan Paul. Naturally, One Direction fans were upset to see the singer talk negatively about someone he had performed with for years, and who he had once seemed to be friends with.
During his recent appearance on the controversial Impaulsive podcast, Payne, 28, opened up about his strained relationship with Malik, 29, and said there were many reasons why he’d “always dislike him” among other things. Paul, the host of the podcast, mentioned that Malik had a feud with his brother Jake after the two social media personality siblings publicly claimed that the “Pillowtalk” hitmaker was not pleasant to them during a Las Vegas trip.
At the time of their very meme-d and Twitter-trending feud in February 2020, Gigi Hadid (Malik’s then-girlfriend) tweeted a message to the Paul brothers (that they still don’t seem to be over, as implied in the podcast). Hadid wrote, “Lol cause [Malik] doesn’t care to hang w you and your embarrassing crew of YouTube groupies ..? Home alone with his best friends like a respectful king cause he has me, sweetie. Unbothered by your irrelevant ugly ass. Go to bed …”
Payne brought up this very tweet in the recent clip as he continued to express his disdain for Malik. Speaking to Paul this week, Payne said, “She tweeted something about get yourself a respectful man or something. That one didn’t age very well.” Payne seemed to be referencing Malik’s alleged physical altercation with Gigi’s mother Yolanda in September of 2021, whom he reportedly deemed a “f—ing Dutch slut.”
The “Strip That Down” singer then emphasized that his feelings towards his former bandmate are more complicated and layered. “There’s many reasons why I dislike Zayn and there’s many reasons why I’ll always, always be on his side,” he told Paul, 27.The Impaulsive episode began trending over the past few days, and since then, One Direction fans have been passionately tweeting to Payne, urging him to “apologize” to Malik and even bringing up recent drama surrounding Payne’s ex-fiance Maya Henry and his cheating scandal. Payne then took to Twitter to further elaborate on his thoughts and how he really feels about his former 1D groupmate.
“Guys – I wouldn’t normally comment on this stuff but when it’s your family it’s hard to let it slide,” Payne tweeted on Jun 2nd. ”They mentioned a specific incident involving Zayn which I responded to – but listening back maybe I didn’t articulate myself as well as I could have.” He added a follow-up tweet that read, “I was saying that there will always be things we disagree on but that I will always, always be on his side.” Payne continued, “That’s family. Zayn is my brother and I will stand by him forever.”In other clips from the highly viewed podcast episode, Payne can be heard acknowledging Malik’s tumultuous upbringing and the differences from his early life to Payne’s own. Other fans urged him to “speak more about the racism Zayn faced as being a singer of color” or “recognize the difficulties Zayn has been through before judging him,” as another wrote.
In the episode, Payne said, “If I had 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. […] You can always look at the man for where he is and say, ‘Oh yeah, whatever, that guy’s a d—, 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.”Payne went on, adding, “I can’t sit here and d— on him because of whatever. And 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.”