The Fallout Between Liam Payne And His One Direction Bandmates, Explained

At just 31 years of age, One Direction member Liam Payne has tragically died. Reportedly, Payne, who mesmerized the masses with his solo efforts after his group disbanded roughly a year after Zayn Malik's departure, was found dead in Argentina on October 16. Although his official cause of death is dependent on an autopsy, it appears he sustained fatal injuries after he fell from his third-floor hotel balcony.

Payne's death has inspired mourning in his millions of fans around the world, as well as many of his Hollywood peers, including Paris Hilton, who likened him to a friend. "So upsetting to hear the news of @LiamPayne passing," she posted to X, formerly Twitter. "Sending love and condolences to his family & loved ones. RIP my friend." Meanwhile, rapper Juicy J, one of Payne's solo collaborators, tweeted, "R.I.P. Liam Payne wow I can't believe it prayers up for the family."

The singer's One Direction bandmembers, who shared a tumultuous bond, have yet to speak out about Payne's death, though it's still very early. Recent years have seen Payne forge renewed bonds with some of his bandmates — including Niall Horan, whose concert he recently supported in Argentina. However, the late singer is known to have had a complicated relationship with members of the boy band throughout the years, resulting in multiple falling-outs.

Despite what fans may have thought at the time, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson weren't always on the best terms while they were attached to One Direction. Payne confirmed as much during his 2022 appearance on Logan Paul's "Impaulsive" podcast. "Louis was wild," he said about Tomlinson. "And he wanted to be wild. That's his spirit." He continued, "He's my best mate now, but in the band, we hated each other. Like, to come to blows hated each other. It was close." 

However, Payne and Tomlinson eventually found common ground and even went on to pen many of One Direction's hits. Tomlinson even rushed to Payne's defense after his negative commentary about Zayn Malik — which we'll get to below — inspired a wave of hate for him on social media. "It wasn't too bad," said Tomlinson about Payne's comments on the "Zach Sang Show" in September 2022. "When I first went online, and I'd seen the fans ... I was waiting for it to kick off." He continued, "We all make mistakes of having these judgements when we watch videos or whatever it might be. Let me say this job is f**king challenging at times, mentally very f*king challenging at times."

Furthermore, he claimed that the host had baited Payne into the conversation. 

Although fans were very fond of Liam Payne's perceived bond with Zayn Malik, they weren't close either, and Payne's thoughts about Malik on the "Impaulsive" podcast probably didn't help matters. "Before we go too deeply into this, there's many reasons why I dislike Zayn and there's many reasons why I'll always, always be on his side," he said when discussing Logan Paul's recounting of his brother, Jake Paul's previous spat with Malik. He also discussed the differences in their upbringings, with his parents being supportive and Malik's supposedly being the opposite. He also suggested that Malik's home life had shaped his personality, and not in a good way.

However, Payne started the conversation by jabbing at Malik over the domestic violence incident that he'd had with Yolanda Hadid, the mother of his then-girlfriend, model Gigi Hadid. "Then she tweeted something about getting yourself a respectful man or something," Payne said in response to Hadid's comments about Malik's character when his original rift with the Paul brothers took place. "That one didn't age very well." 

Like Payne and Tomlinson, it appears that Payne and Malik patched up their tattered bond to some degree. Roughly a year later, Payne and Malik shared a pleasant exchange on Instagram. "This sounds big already," Payne wrote in response to Malik's music announcement (via Pop Base). Malik said, "Appreciate it bro, thanks for the love."

Liam Payne's past comment about Harry Styles suggests their bond weakened in the years since they were in a group together. During a 2019 interview with The Face, Payne said that Styles was the one member he'd want to take a walk with, but not for the reason fans might have hoped. "I speak to Louis quite regularly," shared Payne. "I feel like I know where I stand with Niall. But with Harry, there's so much mystery around who he's kind of become. I was actually genuinely looking at some pictures of him the other day, and I just thought, ​"I don't know what more I'd say to him other than, ​'Hello' and ​'How are you?'" Musically, he dubbed himself as "the antichrist version of what Harry is." 

Payne's comments about Styles were considerably more positive by 2022. During an Instagram live, he opened up about a then-recent conversation they'd shared. "I did speak to Harry, and it was really lovely," he shared (via J-14). "He called me because he has a sixth sense for if I'm struggling or if one of us is in trouble, I feel like. I spoke to him, and it was a really lovely catchup, actually. And I've got a lot of love for the man. He's great, he's really, really great." Payne also spoke about his bandmates' similar feelings about missing each other, adding that they were understanding of each other's busy schedules. 

Payne and Niall Horan had a seemingly stable relationship.