Liam Payne Apologizes for Bombshell Interview Slamming 1D, Saying Band Was Built Around Him

It was back in June that Liam blew up the internet with some pretty provocative claims on Logan Paul’s “Impaulsive” podcast. Among other things, he claimed that the group was built around him, a move that prompted “The X Factor” to debunk it with video proof.

For the first time ever, the show released the behind-the-scenes footage of the panel discussing the male contestants, with Nicole Scherzinger actually getting the ball rolling with the idea of combining some of them into a super group, singling out Niall Horan first.

Liam also went in on Zayn, who was the first to leave the group, calling him a d— and saying there were “many reasons” he didn’t like him. He claimed he was thrown into a wall by one of the guys, and said he and Louis Tomlinson hated one another while in 1D together.

All of this left fans in a tizzy, and pushing back against his claims the band was formed around him, or that his first solo single outsold all of the other guy’s first efforts.

Well, it turns out all that backlash hit Liam pretty hard, who told his fans through his Instagram Stories on Saturday that “it got quite dark” for him and he didn’t leave the house for three months.

Liam was watching the World Cup and things weren’t going well for his team, so he shared a short clip of himself, captioning it, “Patiently waiting for the blame and ‘I blocked Liam’ trend on Twitter if England loses.”

He then went deep when one fan tweet-shared his video and wrote that she hated that she laughed, adding, “u won liam payne.” He thanked her for that and then opened up about how hard it’s been for him seeing his fans turn like they did.

“You guys know I’m sorry about all that stuff,” he wrote overtop an image of himself. “I love my boys no sure what was going on with me other than I had a problem with me and i took it out on everyone else.”

He went on to note, “Never had a bigger chip on my shoulder and I’m really glad to lose it.” He concluded with hopes that his fans could forgive him, while acknowledging that he has been able to laugh at the jokes and memes made about it, urging them to “keep em coming.”

In the immediate aftermath of his comments, Liam attempted to express his regrets for what he’d said about Zayn, saying he maybe “didn’t articulate myself as well as I could have.”

The topic had come up when Paul asked about a Twitter feud between Zayn, Gigi Hadid and Logan’s brother Jake that then referenced Zayns’s alleged altercation with Yolanda Hadid.

“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,” Liam said. “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.”

As for Louis, Liam called him a “rowdy guy” and “wild,” which Liam said he wasn’t used to. He also claimed they “hated each other — like, come-to-blows hated each other.”

Without naming names, Liam further claimed that things did come to physicality with one of the guys, with one member allegedly throwing him against a wall backstage. “I said to him ‘If you don’t remove those hands there’s a high likelihood you’ll never use them again,'” Payne told Paul.