Liam Payne Says Staying In One Direction 'Would Have Killed' Him

As a bandmate of One Direction, Liam Payne became a teenage heartthrob for fans all over the world. However, the star recently took to the Table Manners with Jessie Ware podcast to admit that his time in the group (and its accompanying fame) was quite unhealthy and made him become reclusive.

"[Disbanding was] really scary at first, but I needed to stop, definitely. It would have killed me. One hundred percent,” the star, 26, confessed during the episode. "There's no stop button. You've got no control over your life. That's why I lost complete control of everything. We were definitely overworked...I had no personal life. I learned nothing about myself." Payne went as far to detail the group's messy schedule, admitting that they had tours sell out before they even had time to write or record albums.

Elsewhere in the podcast, Payne confessed that he attempted to seek therapy to deal with the stress that came with the band, but it only gave him insight as to the bigger hole that he was in."I remember getting to therapy the one time and the guy was like, 'What do you like to do?' [I replied,] 'I don't know. I haven't got a clue,'" he said.

As for the long-awaited question about his relationship with other bandmates, Payne echoed a tale as old as time. The group didn't really have too much in common outside of the band. “I’ve got no bad bones with any of them. Everyone goes to work, you have people you associate with at work, but you don't see them outside of work,” he explained. “We don't really have a job together anymore. With someone like Harry [Styles], for example, I don't have very much in common with the boy. I can go have a drink with him. Fine, whatever. We just don't really have much in common."

Payne, who has a 2-year-old son, girlfriend, Maya Henry, and a new single called "Stack It Up" under his belt, is in a much better space. It took a long time to get to this place and I'm glad that I'm at this stage of my life now,” he said.

Photo: Getty Images


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