Liam Payne, 28, revealed his true feelings about former One Direction band member Zayn Malik, 29, during his latest podcast interview. The singer admitted to having “dislike” for the “Pillow Talk” crooner, but also admitted he’ll “always be on his side,” in a new interview on Logan Paul‘s Impaulsive. He and the host were talking about Zayn’s headline-making online feud with Logan’s brother, Jake Paul, in 2020, and how Zayn’s girlfriend at the time, Gigi Hadid, stuck up for her beau by calling him “a respectful king” after calling Jake “irrelevant.”
“She tweeted something about get yourself a respectful man or something. That one didn’t age very well,” Liam said of the tweet after asked about his relationship with Zayn, who allegedly shoved Gigi’s mother, Yolanda Hadid, into a dresser and called her a “f**king Dutch slut” during an altercation in Sept. 2021.
Despite the seemingly mocking comment, Liam went on to assure Logan that although he doesn’t always agree with some of Zayn’s decisions, he still has compassion for him because of alleged tough things he had to deal with growing up. “There’s many reasons why I dislike Zayn and there’s many reasons why I’ll always, always be on his side,” he said. “If I had had to go through what he went through, through his growth and whatever else. You know are your parents very supportive?”
“My parents are overly supportive to the point where it’s annoying at times and they don’t even mind me saying that. And Zayn had a different upbringing in that sense,” he continued. “You can always look at the man for where he is and say, ‘Oh, yeah, whatever that guy’s a d*ck.’ 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 even wanted to be there… I’m so misunderstood by myself more than anyone, like I don’t know what I’m doing or why I’m here. It’s like, I can’t sit here and d*ck on him because of whatever.”
“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 the side for that,” Liam concluded. “What I can say is I understand and I hope that, 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. That’s all I’ll say.”
Liam and Zayn were in One Direction together, along with Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and Niall Horan, for over four years until Zayn left the group in March 2015. The band went on to release more music and perform up until Jan. 2016, when they went on hiatus for an unspecified amount of time. All five members of the group have gone on to release solo albums.
You can see Liam’s full interview with Logan at the video above.