One Direction’s Liam Payne Under Fire For Dissing Justin Bieber, Zayn Malik

Published on March 24, 2015.

Mandatory Credit: Photo by David Fisher/REX

The boys of One Direction have been going through a rough patch lately. Although they are still the hottest boy band in the world and are in the middle of another super successful tour, they hit a bit of snag when it was announced that one member, Zayn Malik, needed to take a stress leave.

Malik’s news came shortly after he was accused of cheating on his fiancée. Meanwhile bandmate Louis Tomlinson confirmed he had broken up with his girlfriend of four years and now it is Liam Payne making headlines for apparently trying to stay in good spirits amid all the drama.

While every celebrity has to deal with online hate, Payne made the mistake of replying to one Twitter user who criticized him for not being as good as Justin Bieber, writing, “@Real_Liam_Payne Isn’t it kind of depressing for you to know that Justin Bieber will always be more successful than you?”

Payne wrote back with a quick jab at Bieber’s previous run-ins with the law, “@arianasmccann how many times have I been arrested.” The interaction was immediately responded to by users taking both sides of the Bieber-One Direction battle but it wasn’t long before Payne made even his own fans angry.

After he deleted the Bieber post, Payne tweeted out a picture of the band holding up a poster at an autograph signing with Payne covering the face of the absent Malik, with the caption, “#makinglightofasituation sorry for the laughs guys.”

The post enraged fans who thought it was insensitive for Payne to joke about Malik being away from the band.

Malik is supposed to return to the tour at the end of March, however some reports are indicating that he is working on leaving the band altogether. A rep for the band has not confirmed those rumors.

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