Liam Payne opens up about rehab stay and viral One Direction comments

Liam Payne has opened up about a recent stint in rehab and his controversial and viral comments he made about One Direction on Logan Paul’s podcast.

The singer appeared on YouTuber Paul’s Impaulsive series last June and claimed that one of his bandmates had thrown him “up a wall” during an argument. He also said that there were “many reasons why I dislike Zayn [Malik]”.

Payne shared a new YouTube video on his own channel last week (July 8), explaining to fans why he’s been quiet since that episode was released. “I needed to take a bit of time out for myself, actually, because I kind of became somebody who I didn’t really recognise anymore, and I’m sure you guys didn’t either,” he began.

He continued to address his appearance on Paul’s podcast, saying: “I think, for me, a lot of what I said just came from the wrong place. I was so angry at what was going on around me. Instead of taking a look inwards, I decided to look outwards at everybody else. I just took it out on everybody else, which is just wrong, really, and my own frustrations with my own career and where I landed – I took shots at everybody else and that was wrong so I just wanna apologise for that in the first instance.”

Addressing his comments about One Direction specifically, he said that his words had come from “self-protection”, but that “the rest of the boys really stuck by me when I needed them most, they kinda came to the rescue”.

“Even Zayn, as well,” he added, “which is why I did send him a little thank you online. It came across really big-headed didn’t it?”

Payne said that the podcast video was “hard for me to watch back” and suggested that he hadn’t realised how much “impact” his words would have.

“Looking back on it, the whole podcast was a big L – and not the Liam kind,” he said. “In fact, it’s probably one of those life-changing moments that saved my life in a way.”

He explained that he spent some time after the video was uploaded “away” so that he could “get better”. “The whole thing got to that point of where it was just a scramble to stay relevant,” he said, sharing that he had gone to a facility in Louisiana to “get my head straight”.

The singer also shared that he hadn’t had drunk alcohol since attending a Hans Zimmer concert with a friend nearly six months ago. “I’m excited about [it],” he said of sobriety. “It’s good to be in this position. I don’t need those things anymore. Party’s over.”

During his episode of Impaulsive Payne had taken shots at his bandmates’ solo careers, boasting about his debut solo single doing better than theirs. “We did the first song…a billion streams,” he said. “I think it outsold everybody within the band and I was the last to go, and I never expected that.”

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