‘There are many reasons why I dislike him’: Liam Payne takes swipe at former bandmate Zayn Malik

‘I don’t agree with any of his actions,’ singer said of Malik

Liam Payne took a swipe Zayn Malik during an interview with controversial YouTube star Logan Paul.

During the chat, Paul brought up the subject of Payne’s former One Direction bandmate, describing a heated situation involving Malik and his brother, Jake, which took place in 2020.

“I had an experience with one of your early bandmates – he was fired up,” Paul said, before naming Malik.

Here, Payne jokingly calling him “Wayne Malik”.

Paul then described an alleged “experience” in which Jake tweeted Malik after believing the singer had been “disrespectful” towards him. After this, Zayn’s ex-girlfriend, model Gigi Hadid, sent a tweet to Jake “calling him “ugly and irrelevant”.

Payne interjected: “Then she tweeted something about ‘get yourself a respectful man’ or something – that one didn’t age very well.”

It’s believed that Payne was referring to the allegation that Malik had “struck” Hadid’s mother, Yolanda, during an altercation last year.

Malik, who has a daughter with Hadid, vehemently denied the claim, writing in a statement: “I adamantly deny striking Yolanda Hadid and for the sake of my daughter I decline to give any further details and I hope that Yolanda will reconsider her false allegations and move towards healing these family issues in private.”

Liam Payne suggested he hopes he can patch things up with Zayn Malik (pictured) one day (Getty Images)

Payne didn’t elaborate on the meaning behind his remark, but continued: “Before we go too deep into this, there’s many many reasons why I dislike Zayn and there’s many reasons why I’ll always always be on his side.

He added: “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, and 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***,’ but at the end of the day once you understand what he’s been through to get to the point, and whether or not if he he actually even wanted to be there...

Payne 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. But what I can say is that I understand, and you only hope that some point in their life, the person on the other end of the phone wants to receive the help you’re willing to give.”

The Independent has contacted Malik’s representative for comment.

Fans have called out Payne for his remarks during the interview, accusing him of talking “crap” about his former bandmates while they mostly remain quiet about the details of their time in One Direction.