Inside Liam Payne and Zayn Malik’s relationship after ‘butting heads’

Out of all the testimonials to the singer, who fell to his death from a balcony in Buenos Aires on Wednesday evening aged 31, Zayn Malik’s was possibly the most revealing and realistic.

Zayn‘s heartfelt tribute to his late bandmate described the 31-year-old as a beloved ‘brother’ who supported him through difficult times, while acknowledging that Payne was ‘opinionated’ and they ‘butted heads’.

He portrays a relationship built around both love and conflict that fans will recognise from the two singers’ well-publicised rifts over the years after meeting when Payne was 16 and Malik was 17 on the 2010 season of the X Factor. 

Taking to Instagram on Thursday evening, Zayn wrote: ‘Even though you were younger than me you were always more sensible than me., you were headstrong, opinionated and gave no f**ks about telling people they were wrong. Even though we butted heads because of this a few times, I always secretly respected you for it.’

In the wake of Zayn’s sudden departure from One Direction in 2015, he said that Liam was the one he was closest to, revealing that they stayed in touch on the phone, but their public pronouncements about each other still had an aura of tension.

Then, in 2022, the gloves really came off when Liam appeared on Logan Paul‘s podcast and made a number of jibes at Zayn, saying that he had various reasons to ‘dislike’ his former bandmate. 

Here, MailOnline examines the origins of their feud and how, in a cruel twist of fate, they were in the process of healing their relationship before Liam’s death earlier this week. 

Frictions between One Direction were brought to the surface in March 2015 when Zayn sensationally announced he was leaving in a bid to be a ‘normal’ 22-year-old ‘who is able to relax and have some private time out of the spotlight.’

He then signed a solo contract with RCA records, and made a sly dig at the band by claiming it was time to make ‘real music’.

He wrote on Twitter: ‘I guess I never explained why I left, it was for this moment to be given the opportunity to show you who I really am! #realmusic #RCA !!’

In a 2015 interview with GQ, Liam said Zayn didn’t even say goodbye when he left the band, adding fuel to fans’ fears that his exit was far-from friendly.

‘I think with Zayn’s particular exit and the way he chose to go, we haven’t really heard from him since he left.’

‘He didn’t even say goodbye, if I am being honest. It was a really sordid scenario, from our side certainly. A bit strange. It’s difficult.’

Zayn later told Alex Cooper on the Call Her Daddy podcast, that in addition to being eager to be the first to launch a solo career, there were ‘underlying issues within our friendships too’.

‘We’d got sick of each other if I’m being completely honest. We had been together nearly every day for five years,’ he said. 

Months after Zayn’s departure, and with more than 20 million albums sold, the remaining members of One Direction announced they were going on an ‘extended hiatus’.

However, hopes of the band getting back together fizzled out as the years passed and there was no sign of a reunion, but Zayn and Liam seemed to patch things up to an extent.

In 2016, when he was asked what his relationship with his former bandmates was like, Zayn said: ‘I’m still probably the closest to Liam. We talk on the phone. He congratulated me on my single. Which was nice. I congratulated him on his Brit Award.’

He repeated in another interview that he was in touch with Liam and claimed none of the others had reached out to him. 

‘We talk on the phone,’ he told NME. ‘We haven’t met up in a long time so we want to meet up.’ 

Despite Zayn’s warm words for Liam, fans were not convinced that all was well between them. 

In 2018, Liam tweeted Niall, Louis and Harry when he saw the hashtag #OneDirectionBestFans trending worldwide – but failed to mention original member Zayn.

He wrote: ‘@NiallOfficial @Louis_Tomlinson @Harry_Styles can you believe this after so long?!!! Thank you so much you guys are unbelievable’.

There was more than a hint of damning with faint praise when Liam spoke to the Killing it Podcast about Zayn’s solo career in 2020.

‘Zayn makes music, but he doesn’t really perform,’ he said. ‘For him, he had such performance anxiety that he just couldn’t put his head around it.’

Payne recalled watching Malik’s ‘really great’ first solo performance after leaving the group.

‘I think he is just kind of happy,’Liam continued. ‘He likes going to the studio, making the songs, he just doesn’t want to do anything that happens after that. But he is streaming hugely.’

In 2022, Liam shed a stark light on how much relations deteriorated within One Direction, when he claimed that he once got into a physical altercation with one of his bandmates during a very heated exchange, but declined to name them.

Speaking on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast, he said he was known for ‘not taking s**t’, but that sometimes caused tension in the group.

He shared: ‘There was one moment where there was an argument backstage and one member in particular threw me up a wall.

‘So I said to him, ‘If you don’t remove those hands there’s a high likelihood you’ll never use them again’.’

He went on to note his bandmate eventually removed his hands.

Earlier this month, Liam’s ex-fiancée Maya Henry, who dated the star on and off for four years, named the star who is alleged to have thrown him against a wall as Zayn Malik.

She made the revelation in response to a TikTok user who brought up the mystery and shared ‘You can’t convince me it wasn’t Louis’.

Maya, 23, said she ‘could not hold this information any more’, explaining: ‘I see this all the time, everywhere, I’ve heard this insufferable story so many times…he told me it was Zayn, so…’

On the same podcast, when asked for his thoughts about Zayn, Liam discussed a social media post by Zayn’s model ex-girlfriend Gigi Hadid.

‘She tweeted something about get yourself a respectful man or something. That one didn’t age very well,’ he said.

The comment was interpreted by fans as a reference to an allegation made by Gigi’s mother Yolanda Hadid that Zayn had shoved her into a dresser and called her a ‘f***ing Dutch sl*t’.

In the lengthy rant, Liam said that in spite of his ‘dislike’ of Zayn, he tried to be empathetic because of the Bradford-born singer’s upbringing.  

He said: ‘There’s many reasons why I dislike Zayn and there’s many reasons why I’ll always, always be on his side.

‘If I had had to go through what he went through, through his growth and whatever else. You know are your parents very supportive?

‘My parents are overly supportive to the point where it’s annoying at times and they don’t even mind me saying that. And Zayn had a different upbringing in that sense.’

He continued: ‘You can always look at the man for where he is and say, ‘Oh, yeah, whatever that guy’s a d**k.’ Right?

‘But at the end of the day, once you understand what he’s been through to get to that point, and also whether or not he even wanted to be there…’I’m so misunderstood by myself more than anyone, like I don’t know what I’m doing or why I’m here. It’s like, I can’t sit here and d**k on him because of whatever.

Although he appeared to claim he had sympathy with Zayn and cared for the ex-One Direction member, he received enormous backlash from fans over his comments.

He took to Twitter to clarify his remarks, saying: ‘Listening back maybe I didn’t articulate myself as well as I could have.

‘I was saying that there will always be things we disagree on but that I will always, always be on his side. That’s family. Zayn is my brother and I will stand by him forever.’

Liam then disappeared from view, and when he returned to social media he revealed he’d sought treatment for substance abuse issues.  

In July 2023, Liam apologised to Zayn for discussing him on the podcast in a video he posted to YouTube after spending 100 days in rehab at a Louisiana facility. 

Sharing that he was six months sober, Liam posted to his YouTube channel with the tag: ‘I’m back.’ 

In the video, he admitted to removing himself from the public eye for his mental wellbeing, saying: ‘I kind of became somebody who I didn’t really recognise anymore. And I’m sure you guys didn’t either. I was in bad shape up until that point and I was really happy to kind of put a stopper to life and work.’

In the eight-minute video, Liam addressed the comments he’d made about Zayn in the podcast.

‘I think for me, a lot of what I said just came from the wrong place,’ Liam remarked. ‘I was so angry at what was going on around me that instead of taking a look inwards I decided to take it outwards. I want to apologise for that.’ 

He seemed to suggest that he’d since patched things up with Zayn, saying that all his One Direction bandmates had supported him during his rehab stint.  

‘The rest of the boys have really stuck by me,’ he proclaimed. ‘When I needed them most they kind of came to my rescue, even Zayn as well, which is why I did send him a little thank you online.’

Before his death, Liam appeared to be on good terms with Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan, and he’d also rekindled a relationship with Harry Styles after not speaking for several years.

His relationship with Zayn also appeared to be on a positive trajectory when Liam commented on Zayn’s Instagram post teasing new music in June 2023, saying: ‘This sounds big already’.

Zayn replied, saying: ‘Appreciate it bro, thanks for the love.’

His tragic death has cut short their time to fully rebuild their friendship, as Zayn himself so poingnantly put it in his tribute to Liam when he said he’d assumed they would have ‘so many more conversations’ in the future. 

‘Liam I have found myself talking out loud to you, hoping you can hear me, I can’t help but think selfishly that there was so many more conversations for us to have in our lives,’ he said.

‘I never got to thank you for supporting me through some of the most difficult times in my life.

‘When I was missing home as a 17-year-old kid you would always be there with a positive outlook and reassuring smile and let me know you were my friend and that I was loved.

‘Even though you were younger than me you were always more sensible than me., you were headstrong, opinionated and gave no f**ks about telling people they were wrong.

‘Even though we butted heads because of this a few times, I always secretly respected you for it.

‘I hope that wherever you are right now you are good and are at peace, and you know how loved you are. Love you bro.’

When it came to the music Liam, you were the most qualified in every sense, I knew nothing in comparison, I was a novice child, with no experience and you were already a professional.

‘I was always happy to know, no matter what happened on stage we could always rely on you to know which way to steer the ship next.

‘I lost a brother when you left us and can’t explain to you what I’d give to just give you a hug one last time and say goodbye to you properly and tell you that I loved and respected you dearly.

‘I will cherish all the memories I have with you in my heart forever, there is no words that justify or explain how I feel right now other than beyond devastated.

‘I hope that wherever you are right now you are good and are at peace, and you know how loved you are. Love you bro.’

Liam Payne plunged 45ft from the third floor into the courtyard of the Casa Sur Hotel in the Argentinian capital on Wednesday, sparking a wave of grief around the world.

Payne was found dead by police who say they found the popstar’s medicines including clonazepam – a drug which is used to control epilepsy, involuntary muscle spasms and panic disorders.

Photos inside the luxury suite, published by Argentinian magazine Clarin, appeared to confirm the troubling report about Payne’s mental state.

On a table, the surface was covered with tin foil, white powder, a lighter and scorch marks on the wooden surface.

A blackened aluminium drinks can lid appeared to have been heated and a smashed TV screen on a shelf bore the signs of a heavy impact whilst a half-empty Champagne flute was nearby.

A post-mortem confirmed Payne died instantly after suffering multiple injuries that led to ‘internal and external haemorrhaging’.

It comes as MailOnline revealed that the father-of-one had told a hotel guest, ‘I used to be in a boy band – that’s why I am so f***ed up’, just minutes before he died.

The woman, referred to as Rebecca (not her real name), said he showed ‘weird and disturbing behaviour’ before smashing his laptop on the floor.