Liam Payne has revealed there are “many reasons” why he dislikes his former One Direction bandmate Zayn Malik.
Zayn left the popular band back in 2015, a year before the group’s indefinite hiatus.
Speaking on the Impaulsive with Logan Paul podcast, Liam said: “There’s many reasons why I dislike Zayn and there’s many reasons why I’ll always, always be on his side.”
The singer continued: “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**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.”
Liam added that he himself is “so misunderstood,” so he “can’t sit here and d**k on [Zayn] because of whatever.”
Seemingly referring to Zayn’s fall-out with Yolanda Hadid, the mother of his ex-girlfriend Gigi Hadid, Liam 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.”
Liam and Zayn were in One Direction with Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles, and Niall Horan.
Speaking on the podcast, Liam said that he and his bandmates “came very close” to throwing blows “at points” of their career.
He said: “There was one moment where there was an argument backstage and one member, in particular, threw me up a wall.”
“So I said to him, ‘If you don’t remove those hands there’s high likelihood you’ll never use them again.'”
