Liam Payne defended over Zayn Malik comment while addressing Jesy Nelson’s Little Mix departure

One Direction star backtracked immediately

Liam Payne is being defended by fans over a comment he made about Zayn Malik in relation to former Little Mix star Jesy Nelson.

The One Direction singer addressed the news about Nelson’s departure on TikTok Live, sending her “a lot of love”.

Beforehand, after first reading out the question a fan had posted about Nelson, Payne began his answer by saying: “Someone Zayn’d out.”

This was in reference to Malik, his former bandmate who quit One Direction in 2015.

However, he immediately backtracked, acknowledging the seriousness of the matter. He added that Malik “left [One Direction] for pretty much the same reason”.

"No, no, let’s be serious about this,” he said. “It’s always sad at this moment in time when bands get into that sort of thing. Having been there myself, I felt that Zayn left for pretty much the same reason in a weird way."

He then sent Nelson and the remaining three members of Little Mix – Jade Thirlwall, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Perrie Edwards – his best.

"It's a tough time and I do feel for them because everyone is watching in that little fishbowl at the moment and no one really understands what's going on or how it feels for some people.”

After many expressed their anger over Payne’s initial comment on social media, a number of others urged people to watch the full video instead of piling onto the singer.

“See the whole thing before s***ting on him,” one fan demanded.

Many other Malik fans felt Payne had disrespected him with the comment.

After one person wrote: “Liam I love you but this is NOT it,” another added: “He corrected himself right after because he realised it wasn't the right thing to say and sent the best wishes to Jesy and the girls."