The singer also alluded to his former bandmate's split from Gigi Hadid.
Liam Payne is opening up about his experiences with Zayn Malik. The 28-year-old singer appeared on the latest episode of the Impaulsive with Logan Paul podcast and spoke about his former One Direction bandmate, who exited the group in 2015, a year before the boy band's indefinite hiatus.
Zayn came up when Logan was discussing a 2020 feud that his brother, Jake Paul, had with the "Pillowtalk" singer in Las Vegas. Amid social media back-and-forth, Zayn's then-girlfriend, Gigi Hadid, chimed in on Twitter, calling Jake "irrelevant" and Zayn "a respectful king."
"She tweeted something about get yourself a respectful man or something. That one didn't age very well," Liam said of Gigi's tweet, alluding to her eventual split from Zayn, after he allegedly shoved her mother, Yolanda Hadid, into a dresser and called her a "f**king Dutch slut" during an altercation.
In a statement to ET at the time, Zayn said he does "adamantly deny striking Yolanda." He pleaded no contest to four counts of harassment. He was sentenced to 90 days of probation for each count, totaling 360 days, and told he must complete an anger management class and a domestic violence program.
"There's many reasons why I dislike Zayn and there's many reasons why I'll always, always be on his side," Liam said on the podcast. "If I had had to go through what he went through -- with his growth and whatever else... My parents are overly supportive to the point where it's annoying at times. Zayn had a different upbringing in that sense."
"You can always look at the man for where he is and say, 'Oh yeah, whatever, that guy's a d**k,'" he continued. "But at the end of the day, once you're understanding what he's been through to get to that point -- and also whether or not he wanted to be there."
Liam added that he himself is "so misunderstood," so he "can't sit here and d**k on [Zayn] because of whatever."
"Listen, I don't agree with any of his actions. I can't commend some of the things that he's done. I can't be on his side for that," Liam said. "What I can say is I understand and your only hope is that at some point in their life, the person at the other end of the phone wants to receive the help that you're willing to give them."
Liam and Zayn were in the popular boy band with Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles, and Niall Horan. During their One Direction days, Liam said that he and his bandmates "came very close" to throwing blows "at points," before describing one encounter with an undisclosed member of the band.
"There was one moment where there was an argument backstage and one member, in particular, threw me up a wall," Liam claimed. "So I said to him, 'If you don't remove those hands there's high likelihood you'll never use them again.'"
ET has reached out to Zayn's rep for comment on Liam's interview.
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