Liam Payne is setting the record straight on his recent comments about Zayn Malik.
"Guys—I wouldn't normally comment on this stuff but when its your family it's hard to let it slide," Liam tweeted on June 2, referring to comments he made about his former One Direction bandmate on the May 31 episode of Impaulsive with Logan Paul.
Liam continued: "They mentioned a specific incident involving Zayn which I responded to - but 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."
In case you missed the podcast, Zayn came up after Logan looked back at a 2020 incident involving his brother Jake Paul and Zayn in Las Vegas. In a tweet, the YouTuber-turned-boxer accused the "PILLOWTALK" singer of having an "attitude" and telling him to "f--k off for no reason." However, Zayn's then-girlfriend Gigi Hadid quickly came to his defense, with the supermodel calling him a "respectful king" and Jake an "irrelevant ugly ass" in a tweet.
"She tweeted something about, like, get yourself a respectable man," Liam recalled. "That one didn't age very well."
Gigi and Zayn, who share 20-month-old daughter Khai, broke up last fall. News of the split came amid reports that Zayn had gotten into an argument with Gigi's mom Yolanda Hadid at home in Pennsylvania in September. A police report obtained by E! News said he allegedly "grabbed and shoved" Yolanda.
Zayn pleaded no contest to four counts of harassment and denied hitting Yolanda. "I adamantly deny striking Yolanda Hadid," he told TMZ at the time, "and for the sake of my daughter I decline to give any further details and I hope that Yolanda will reconsider her false allegations and move towards healing these family issues in private."
During his interview with Logan, Liam shared where he stands with Zayn today. "There's many reasons why I dislike Zayn," the "Strip That Down" singer said, "and there's many reasons why I'll always, always be on his side."
Liam then said his parents are "overly supportive to the point where it's annoying at times" and that "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 dick,' right?" he continued. "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 actually even wanted to be there."
Liam said he knows what it's like to be misunderstood. "It's like I can't sit here and dick on him because of whatever," he continued. "And 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. What I can say is I understand and your only hope is that at some point in their life the person on the other end of the phone wants to receive the help that you're willing to give them. "
Liam and Zayn were part of One Direction along with Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan. Zayn left the band, which formed on The X Factor in 2010, in 2015 and the rest of the group went on an indefinite hiatus later that year. In a 2019 interview with GQ Hype, Liam said he hasn't "really heard from him since he left."
E! News reached out to Zayn's rep for comment but has yet to hear back.