Liam Payne: This is what he said about his drug problems

Liam Payne was just 17 years old when he joined the British pop band One Direction. The rise of the five boys from England was rapid and their world fame was overwhelming. Like many other superstars who rode the wave of success so early, the enormous attention also had consequences for Payne. It wasn’t until years later that Payne began to speak openly about his demons.

Liam Payne is dead: That’s how much he suffered during his time with One Direction

“When I went out and put on this happy smile and sang the songs, sometimes it was like I was putting on one of these costumes and people couldn’t really see what was going on underneath the costume,” he told British newspaper The in 2017 Sun” about his concerts with One Direction. After the band formed in 2010 through the talent show “X Factor”, they split up in 2016. The news that Payne, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson would go their separate ways in the future caused sadness among their young fans.

A year before the split, they had to cancel an appearance because of Payne, he recalled in 2017. “Unfortunately, I was going through a difficult time and I let it influence me a little too much,” he said. Two years later, he revealed that he suffered from agoraphobia, the fear of being trapped in a place and unable to escape. There are days when he doesn’t leave his house. Also out of fear of encountering screaming fans. “Unfortunately it happens to everyone in this industry. I think at a certain point you just have to get over it as quickly as possible,” Payne said.

He put on a mask

Also in 2019, he spoke to Australia’s Men’s Health about the pressure of being in a band like One Direction. “When you do hundreds of concerts and play the same 22 songs at the same time every day, you have to go out there even if you’re not happy,” he explained. “It’s almost like putting on the Disney costume before you go on stage, and under the Disney costume I was pissed most of the time because there was no other way to understand what was going on “I mean, we had a lot of fun, but there were certain points where it just got a little toxic,” he said. He has great difficulty saying no.

Payne repeatedly discussed his depression. “There are times when that level of loneliness and the people beating on you every day… it almost killed me a few times,” he said in a 2019 interview with British adventurer Ant Middleton.

Payne later said that he received support from his band member Louis Tomlinson during the corona pandemic. “It was pretty dark for me for a while, and I’m sure a lot of people have had that experience,” he said in 2021.

Alcohol and pills

In the podcast “Diary of a CEO” that same year, Payne also talked about his drug abuse. “There are some things I definitely never talked about. It was really, really, really bad. It was a problem,” he said. “I’m very good at hiding it. No one would have ever seen it,” Payne said.

He became particularly aware of his drinking problem when he saw paparazzi photos of himself with a severely puffy face. “There were a few pictures of me on a boat where I was all puffy, I call it my pills and booze face. My face was ten times bigger than it is now. The problem was that it was best for our safety was to lock ourselves in our rooms, and what’s in a room? A minibar. So I had a party for one that seemed to drag on for years, “he said about his time in the band and the fact that the five guys sometimes had to barricade themselves in hotel rooms from their fans.

Last July, Payne declared he was sober. He has to thank his ex-partner Cheryl Cole and their son for this. “There’s no point in trying to be a father if you have nothing to teach, and I don’t think I really had much to say to him up until that point other than that I care deeply about him and him “I love you very much, which is of course the most important thing,” he explained.

Sources: / / /

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