Liam Payne is taking some heat on social media after weighing in on his former One Direction mate Zayn Malik's 2021 legal woes.
Malik, who left the group before it split up, pleaded no contest last October to harassing his ex Gigi Hadid and her mother Yolanda Hadid. He had been charged with four counts of criminal harassment following an explosive argument in which he "communicated lewd, lascivious, threatening or obscene words."
Appearing on Impulsive with Logan Paul, Payne explained: “There's many reasons why I dislike Zayn and there's many reasons why I'll always, always be on his side. If I had had to go through what he went through – through 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**k.’ Right? But at the end of the day, once you understand what he's been through to get to that point – and also whether or not he actually wanted to be there.”
Payne added: "I’m so misunderstood … like I don’t know what I’m doing or why I’m here,” he said. “It’s like, I can’t sit here and d**k on him because of whatever... Your only hope is that at some point in their life the person on the other end of the phone wants to receive the help that you’re willing to give them."
Some fans of Malik are calling Payne out for talking about Malik’s personal life.
"If liam payne talking **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," one tweeted. Another joked: "NOBODY and i mean NOBODY has ever said 'put on that new liam payne song.'"
Payne also revealed that One Direction was not always one happy family. He and Louis Tomlinson once "hated" each other, he said, and there was tension between all the guys.
“There was one moment where there was an argument backstage and someone, one member in particular, threw me up a wall,” he recalled. “So I said to him, ‘If you don't remove those hands there's a high likelihood you'll never use them again.’”
Check out some of the reactions:
This article has been updated since it was first published.