8 Of Liam Payne's Controversial Moments That Upset Fans

Ever since Liam Payne made some distasteful comments about Zayn Malik on Logan Paul’s podcast, "Impaulsive," he has been trending everywhere.

Along with mentioning that he disliked Malik, Payne also made some remarks about his other One Direction bandmates, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, and Louis Tomlinson.

Along with defending Malik and other members of One Direction, fans have been pointing out that Payne is no saint and have noted that he has been the topic of many scandals in the past.

Here are some of the times fans have given Liam Payne backlash.

1. Liam Payne allegedly cheated on his fiancee, Maya Henry.

Fans were disheartened to learn Payne split from his fiancee, Maya Henry after allegedly cheating on her.

Henry made the allegation after fans had been tagging her in pictures of Payne another woman, believing it to be Henry.

It seemed Henry had enough as she commented on one of the pictures.

She wrote, “I love all of the fans so much but please stop sending me these pictures of my fiancee wrapped around another woman. This is not me and it’s hard enough knowing this has happened without seeing it. Enough now.”

Since then Payne has stepped out with Instagram model, Aliana Mawla who appears to be the woman in the photos. They now seem to be dating.

2. He excluded Zayn Malik from his tweet when giving a shout-out to One Direction.

In 2018, Payne was delighted to see that One Direction's fans had trended the hashtag #OneDirectionBestFans on Twitter. He gave a shout-out to all of his bandmates except Malik.

Even though Malik had left the band before his fellow bandmates, loyal fans felt he also deserved to be appreciated and didn't like that Payne left him out.

3. Liam Payne covered Zayn Malik's face on a poster.

In one instance, Payne along with his fellow members of One Direction posed for a photo with a poster of the band. At that point, Malik had left the band, so Payne covered Malik's face on the poster in a joking manner.

However, fans didn’t see it that way and gave Payne a lot of backlash by posting numerous tweets on social media.

4. The depiction of bisexuality in his song, ‘Both Ways’.

In 2019, Payne released his debut album, ‘LP1’, which included a song, ‘Both Ways’. However, fans accused the ‘Strip it Down’ singer of fetishizing bisexuality in the song and didn’t appreciate it.

The lyrics seem to explore Payne's attraction to bisexual women in a way some fans deemed offensive.

Fans posted about it on social media and trended the hashtag, #LiamPayneIsOverParty on Twitter.

Fans even posted about it on Reddit, where Payne’s album received a lot of criticism. One user wrote, “He needs to face the criticism... how did anyone approve the album?”

5. He shoved Louis onstage while performing.

At one of One Direction’s concerts, Payne shoved his bandmate, Tomlinson on stage. While Harry Styles was performing, Payne and Tomlinson got into a slight brawl.

Payne has since confirmed that the two had just been joking around. However, that didn’t stop fans from coming after him on social media.

Payne took all the backlash in a humorous manner and didn’t pay much attention to it.

6. Liam Payne has been accused of being homophobic.

In another instance during one of One Direction’s concerts, Payne made some comments which weren’t interpreted well.

When the members of the band were getting ready to perform their next song, ‘Girl Almighty’, Payne made some remarks that came off as homophobic.

He said, "This is my favorite song off the last album, and it is about trying to find that number one woman of your life, which none of you can relate to because most of you are girls. Except for the boys in here, you know what I'm talking about."

Fans believed this ignored women who date other women and boys who do not.

This sparked controversy on social media and offended many fans. Payne later defended himself on Twitter followed by an apology, however, fans were still upset.

7. He threw shade at Justin Bieber.

It seems other fandoms have given Payne much backlash as well. After the One Direction alumni made some comments about Justin Bieber on Twitter, Bieber’s fans gave him a lot of criticism.

8. He insulted Harry Styles.

Payne has been accused of insulting his bandmate's eccentric style, saying in an interview that he wouldn't wear the wide leg pants or tutus Styles has sported in the past.

"I couldn’t put myself in that," he said in a 2020 interview, "It’d look weird."

In another interview, he couldn't have his son Bear babysat by Styles, because he would dress him in something "I just wouldn't understand."

However, ultimately Payne has defended Styles and was in his corner when Styles was facing a lot of mean comments over wearing a dress on his Vogue cover.

"I think he's enjoying himself, and he's free to do as he wishes," Payne later said. "And, you know, I just think that people don't need to be so bothered about stuff. There's been a lot more stuff going on this year than whether or not he’s wearing the right clothes in someone else’s mind."

Sanika Nalgirkar is a news & entertainment writer at YourTango based in Seattle, Washington. She has a master's degree in Creative Writing from the University of Washington. You can check out some of her writing on her website.