Liam Payne Discusses A Violent One Direction Bandmate Interaction And The ‘Many Reasons’ He Dislikes Zayn

It’s been made clear over the years that One Direction wasn’t without its internal strife, despite the happy-go-lucky image the group cultivated. Now, on a new episode of the Impaulsive With Logan Paul podcast, Liam Payne outlines a particularly tense encounter in which one of his former bandmates pinned him against a wall.

Without specifying who exactly he was talking about, he said, “I think it was well-known within the band that I don’t like taking sh*t… at a certain point. I made it very obvious, I’m not going to tell you how. There was one moment where there was an argument backstage and someone… one member in particular threw me up a wall. So I said to him, ‘If you don’t remove those hands, there’s a high likelihood you’ll never use them again.’”

Elsewhere during the chat, he discussed both the disdain and the empathy he has for Zayn, saying, “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 — 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*ck.’ 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.”

He added, “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.”

Payne also noted of his relationship with Louis Tomlinson, “Louis was wild. Louis was wild and he wanted to be wild and that’s his spirit. He’s my best mate now, but in the band, we hated each other. Like, to come to blows hate each other. It was close.”

Watch the full Impaulsive With Logan Paul episode above.