Liam Payne dragged for airing One Direction’s dirty laundry on podcast
Apparently they can drag him down.
Twitter users roasted Liam Payne for airing his former One Direction bandmates’ dirty laundry in a new interview.
Payne, 28, appeared on controversial YouTuber Logan Paul’s “Impaulsive” podcast Tuesday and reflected on not only the boy band’s many highs but also their infighting as teens and personal drama in more recent years.
Fans were particularly upset over Payne taking a pointed dig at Zayn Malik, whose ex-girlfriend Gigi Hadid infamously described the “Pillowtalk” singer as a “respectful king” during a 2020 Twitter spat with Paul’s brother, Jake Paul.
Given Malik was charged in 2021 for harassing Hadid’s mother, Yolanda Hadid, Payne said on the podcast of the model’s viral tweet, “That one didn’t age very well.”
In an attempt to explain himself, Payne then said, “There’s many reasons why I dislike Zayn, and there’s many reasons why I’ll always, always be on his side.”
But many Directioners deemed the comment unforgivable.
“liam talking s–t about zayn as if he didnt cheat on his fiancé last week,” one Twitter user wrote, referencing viral photos of Payne snuggling with model Aliana Mawla hours before announcing the end of his engagement to Maya Henry.
“if liam payne talking s–t about zayn on a f–king logan paul podcast isn’t an indicator as to how irrelevant his career is then idk what is,” another critic tweeted.
“zayn choosing to keep certain aspects of his life private and liam airing it out voluntarily to LOGAN PAUL is a prime example of how wicked this man truly is,” a third wrote.
One Direction fans were also outraged over Payne claiming his 2017 debut solo single, “Strip That Down,” “outsold everybody within the band.” They shared screenshots showing that songs such as Harry Styles’ Grammy-winning “Watermelon Sugar” and Malik’s “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” have surpassed “Strip That Down” with over a billion streams each and reminded Payne that his critically panned 2019 album, “LP1,” peaked at No. 111 on the Billboard 200.
“Liam…baby we can easily fact check,” one netizen tweeted.
“‘i outsold all the boys’ -liam payne on logan paul’s podcast as harry styles sold out 15 shows at msg, wembley stadium for 2 nights, headlined coachella two weekends, and broke chart records all while having class and respect for his ex band mates,” another wrote.
“NOBODY and i mean NOBODY has ever said ‘put on that new liam payne song,’” a third fan quipped.
Other Directioners pointed out that Malik, Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan have gone out of their way in past interviews to not bad-mouth their bandmates, with Styles and Horan eating a scorpion and drinking a salmon smoothie, respectively, on “The Late Late Show with James Corden” to avoid questions intended to stir up drama.
Elsewhere on the podcast, Payne called Tomlinson “rowdy” and alleged that one unnamed band member once “threw [him] up a wall” backstage at a concert.
Malik, 29, Styles, 28, Tomlinson, 30, and Horan, 28, have not responded to Payne’s claims.
One Direction has been on hiatus since 2016.
