Liam Payne is making fun of what happened after Zayn Malik left One Direction, which happened more than six years ago.
On Monday, Payne made fun of the meeting he, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and Niall Horan had with the band’s management after Malik, who was 28 at the time, decided to leave the band in 2015.
“POV the meeting after Zayn quit,” his on-screen caption says, as Payne, 28, mouths the words to a viral audio of a confused man asking, “Are we absolutely sure what direction we’re going?”
In less than an hour, the video had already garnered nearly a million likes and 3 million views as comments from Directioners surprised Payne would address that moment flooded the comments.
One of your fans wrote, “YOU GOT UP AND CHOSE VIOLENCE.” “LIAM YOU DID NOT,” added another.
“Impeccable use of this sound,” wrote a third.
And in the caption, Payne made it clear that it was all for fun: “forgot I made this a while ago, hope you see the funny side,” he wrote, adding the hashtag #sunshine, which is the name of his new single, and a set of laughing emojis.
Since going on hiatus after dropping Made in the AM as a fourpiece, One Direction has talked openly about their time in the group and stressed that there’s no bad blood.
Styles, who is 27 years old, told Variety last year that when people leave bands and start solo careers, they feel like they need to apologize for being in the band.
“”Don’t worry, everyone, I didn’t do that! I can finally do what I really want to do.” But it was fun to be in the band.”
Payne, on the other hand, has been honest about his drinking and mental health problems while he was in the group.
“I was worried about how far down I would go. Where is my rock bottom? And you never would have known. I’m very good at hiding it, “In the beginning of this year, Payne said on a podcast. “No one would ever have seen it.”
When asked if some of these low points involved “suicidal thoughts, and Payne said, “Yes. There is some stuff that I have definitely never, never spoken about.
It was terrible, terrible, terrible. It was not good. I didn’t realize I needed to change until I looked in the mirror afterward.”
“There were a few pictures of me on a boat and I was all bloated out,” Payne continued. “I call it my pills-and-booze face.
It was about ten times bigger than it is now. I just didn’t like myself that much, so I did something about it.”