Stripping Down THAT Liam Payne Interview
Liam Payne; father, solo artist and victim of his own ego has been all over our collective feeds for what feels like forever.
Here's how this media storm began. On the 24th of May, a fan account with the username payno18 on Instagram uploaded a carousel of candids with the caption 'UPDATE: Liam and Maya look so cute here. 😍' Moments later, Maya Henry (Payne's on and off again fiancé) commented on the post saying; "I love all of the fans so much but please stop sending me these pictures of my fiancé wrapped around another woman. This is not me and it's hard enough knowing this has happened without seeing it. Enough now."
Not the best start. Moments later publications were simultaneously accusing Payne of cheating and announcing his new relationship with model and Fashion Nova brand ambassador Aliana Mawla. Payne, 28 and Henry, 22 first met at a One Direction meet-and-greet event in 2015. Her family is very wealthy; wealthy enough to have celebrity performers at their events. I believe they also had a reality TV show? At the time of their meeting, Maya Henry was 15 and Liam Payne was 21. For legal reasons I will state that both parties were consenting adults at the initiation of their romantic relationship however, the timeline makes me raise an eyebrow.
This is not the first relationship of Payne's where age has been a cause for concern. Payne has a son with his ex-Cheryl Cole, whom he dated from late 2015 to July 2018. This is weird because Cheryl Cole was one of the judges on X-Factor when 14-year-old Liam first auditioned. She was 24 at the time. Once again, both parties were consenting adults at the initiation of this relationship however, I have some questions, queries and concerns.
Cheating allegations are unfortunately a dime a dozen in the lives of the rich and famous and I am not usually inclined to talk about them, however, this case makes the perfect entrée to today's main [dis]course. A mere week after these allegations were published, Payne, for some unknown reason, was a guest on the "Impaulsive with Logan Paul" podcast. Interesting choice. Well, not so much interesting as potentially career-ruining. If you know who Logan Paul is then that statement needs no explanation. If you don't, I still won't explain it but you can watch this fabulous analysis by Cruel World Happy Mind on YouTube. So, whilst the world was reeling from news of Payne allegedly cheating on his fiancé, an hour-long interview of him comes out. This interview could have been a positive PR move for Payne; something to shift the public's minds away from his alleged infidelity and toward the many businesses he says he's in charge of. To be fair, that is what the interview did… but not in an entirely positive light.
Having been in one of the biggest bands of all time, one would assume that Liam Payne has media training. I am almost certain that he would have undergone some level of media training at some point in his career. The only thing that makes me doubt this is this entire podcast interview.
The 'teaser' clip played at the beginning of a podcast episode is chosen to set the tone for what you're about to listen to. Those 30-second clips can tell you a lot. The clip chosen for this interview is Payne imitating Pirates of the Caribbean's Captain Jack Sparrow to which one of Logan Paul's co-hosts says and I quote; "Amber Heard is shaking right now." Right to jail. Payne [who might be 3 drinks in at this point] doing this impression comes moments after he has opened up about how his best defence mechanism when he is a little wasted is to pretend to be other people, so he doesn't get scared of himself. I don't know about you, but to me, that sounds like a cry for help. Help with what, I can't tell you but, none of this resembles the thought processes of a healthy or mentally stable individual.
This interview is not only incredibly candid, but it is also rambly, nonsensical at some points and is conducted whilst the interviewee is drunk. Technically I can't say that he is drunk but the man was at least very close to being so. Liam arrived early to the interview and the hosts of 'Impaulsive' are [unprofessionally] late to arrive to set. Late enough for Liam to have already downed a glass of whiskey by the time the interview starts. Payne discusses at length his people-pleasing tendencies - a quality I assume is behind his punctuality. However, he also credits this personality trait of his as being the reason he doesn't know who he is as a person. He opens up about how a solo career wasn't something he thought he wanted to do post the wild ride that was One Direction. At many points, he refers to it as being his dad's dream. "I don't even know if I wanted to be a solo artist, I just did it." In about half an hour, we have learnt that he does not know who he is and that he feels no real agency over his life. During this discussion is when 'Strip that Down' is mentioned. In case you have somehow escaped this dumpster fire, Liam jokes that when Ed [Sheeran] presented him with this song he couldn't turn down that opportunity even though he hadn't wanted to keep singing. It was at this point in the interview I realised that Ed was not the person that had sung that song. Which made Payne's next line so much harder for me to digest or even take seriously. In the same tone a crypto-boy would brag about paying millions of dollars for an NFT of an ape, Payne says "First song, billion streams. I think it outsold everybody within the band and I was the last one to release one."
With all due disrespect, nothing in that statement is true. Maybe the fact that it was his first single as a solo artist but literally nothing else. It can all be so easily disputed. If you’re going to lie at least make it difficult to disprove. One only needs to take a second to analyse their streaming statistics to realise just how far from reality that statement is. The thing is though, in addition to Liam Payne needing mountains of therapy and a real support network, I believe he is not self-aware. At all. The man is delusional. These statements to him aren't exaggerations or untruths, because he genuinely believes every word coming out of his mouth. Not just the statement about 'Strip that Down' but also what he believes to be the ideals and motivations behind One Direction's inception. Spoiler alert: it was all about and for him. Obviously. The story he tells the Impaulsive hosts [later on in this same interview] is that after not making it through to the next round of X-Factor when he was 14, Simon Cowell took him and his mother out for dinner. At this dinner, Simon said something along the lines of, and I'm paraphrasing here, 'You're not quite ready yet but come back in two years and I'll make this happen for you.' As he tells this story, everyone around is egging him on and giving him the reactions he wants. It was at this point I realised that Logan Paul and his buddies didn't truly believe Liam's stories, they just saw the great *content* value in front of them and reacted as thus. Sounds manipulative if you ask me. But you didn’t so I will keep my mouth shut.
With Cowell's advice, Liam Payne reauditioned two years later and was once again at the risk of not making it through when he was offered the chance to join One Direction. He mentions some wise statement his father made about how it is 'better to be one part of something than all of nothing' which I couldn't ruminate on because I was too busy failing to digest the story I was being fed. As ridiculous as this would sound to anyone hearing it; Liam hits us with another soundbite, "I was basically the honorary member of One Direction. And Simon has actually told me that story at his house."
To quote one of the greatest minds of our time, Lizzo, "I don't know who lied to that poor boy, but we all know he was not the front man."
This man with no hint of a doubt believes that his single has outperformed any released by his ex-bandmates and he also fully believes that this incredibly successful, iconic band was put together just for him. I've said this before and Mindy Kaling said it before I did but I would love to walk around with the level of self-assuredness that white men do. Maybe the hot girls of TikTok are right and the real secret to success is being delusional. Because as BAD as this interview was, and as terrible the cheating allegations are, Liam Payne is fine. Maybe not mental health wise but being famous as a child and having your freedom taken away from you during your developmental years - even if it is for your safety - will do that to a person. The truth of the matter is, at this point no matter what he does or what he says, he will always have supporters. The Liam Payne girlies will always be there to defend or justify his every move. Not only that, he will always have a career. He believes in himself enough for nothing, let alone reality, to get in his way which I have to respect.
I can find some sympathy in my heart for how he is struggling and all he has been through. At the same time, however, I hated watching this interview/ podcast recording because all it showcased was ego and delusion and toxic masculinity all masquerading as humour. Things that every social commenter on the internet has already dissected to great lengths. What I don't think enough people are discussing is the weird undertone to his comments on Zayn Malik. He spends some time listening to Logan discuss his brother Jake's aggressive encounter with Malik to which Liam responds, "There are many reasons why I dislike Zayn, and there are many reasons why I'll always be on his side. If I had to go through what he went through… through his growth and whatever else… your parents are very supportive… my parents are overly supportive, in the sense where it's annoying at times…Zayn had a very different upbringing in that sense." For those of you who aren't aware, Zayn was the only non-white member of One Direction. To me, a lot of this sounds like the perpetuation of the idea that brown or ethnic parents, in general, don't love their children well. There's something that gives off 'he's only that way because of his parental trauma' vibes which does not sit well with me. On behalf of all ethnic children thank you so much, Liam, for using the platform you have as a white man to reinforce the idea that POC especially Muslim/ South Asian POC have unstable upbringings.
Let's not forget the lengths that other members of One Direction [specifically Niall Horan and Harry Styles] have gone to avoid speaking against their former bandmates. During the 'Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts' segment of the Late Late Show with James Corden, Niall Horan was asked who his least favourite member of One Direction was. He almost answered but at the last minute opted to try his luck with the salmon smoothie in front of him. During his stint guest-hosting that same talk show, Harry Styles was asked by Kendall Jenner to rank his ex-bandmates' solo careers. Before she had even finished saying the word solo; Harry had picked up and started eating a scorpion.
I will probably write about my problems with how 'Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts' platforms non-western cultural foods for the sake of mocking them or talking about how 'disgusting' they apparently are but now isn't the time. If anything, those two examples show us that money and fame can't buy class and Liam Payne [when inebriated] is willing to do anything for the sake of notoriety or a laugh, including throwing his ex-bandmates under the bus. I can sympathise with a lonely person possibly going too far and doing things they later regret because they got caught up in the moment or were trying to impress some strangers. I can understand someone being inebriated and therefore perhaps not being as eloquent as they might have hoped to be on certain matters. I can also understand that being famous as a child messes you up, big time. That is a struggle I do not and will never come close to understanding. I will however draw the line at the unnecessary slander of people you should have respect and empathy for. I am not naive enough to hope that all the One Direction boys were/ are best friends. Anyone who's ever been assigned a group project will know what I mean. That being said, throughout this interview, I kept hoping for some level of mutual respect. Something which Liam failed to deliver on. Maybe it was the alcohol. I'm unsure.
In a 2019 interview with RollingStone for his debut album, Harry Styles was asked if he took those friendships with him when the band stopped. His response was as follows; "Yeah, I think so. Definitely. Because above all else, we're the people who went through that. We're always going to have that, even if we're not the closest. I think even in the disagreements, there's always a mutual respect for each other — we did this really cool thing together, and we'll always have that. It's too important to me to ever be like, 'Oh, that's done.'" In this interview at least, Liam Payne missed the memo.
The only clarity Payne's Impaulsive podcast interview provided was an unshakeable certainty that we are never getting a One Direction reunion of any kind. Pass me a tissue, please.
they don’t know about;
the Impaulsive episode in question
People Magazine US | Liam Payne and Maya Henry End Engagement Nearly One Year After Rekindling Romance
Times of India | Liam Payne's fans accidentally reveal he is cheating on fiance Maya Henry; tag her in pic with new girlfriend Aliana Mawla
She the People | Who is Aliana Mawla? Model And Liam Payne’s Rumoured Girlfriend Is Already Viral
the Mirror UK | Liam Payne's brutal response to ex Maya calling him her 'fiancé' after cheating claims
Cosmopolitan US | Aliana Mawla Is "Taken Aback" by Liam Payne Cheating Allegations
Capital FM | Who Is Maya Henry? Everything You Need To Know About Liam Payne's Ex
the Mirror UK | Cheryl and Liam Payne's relationship timeline: X Factor flirting to 'poo row that split them'
Swell Entertainment on YouTube | stripping down Liam Payne's interview
Bustle | Watch Harry Styles Eat A Truly Disgusting & Revealing Meal With Kendall Jenner
HER | Niall Horan got asked two VERY awkward questions on James Corden's show
