Liam Payne: Teenager thrust into global boyband mania who dealt with early fame

Liam Payne was outspoken about how the global fame of One Direction changed his life and affected his relationship with alcohol.

The singer, who rose to fame on The X Factor, had in recent years talked about his journey to sobriety, and how his drinking began when the global mania for the boyband meant they were often stuck in hotel rooms, where alcohol was available.

He admitted his addiction continued during the Covid pandemic, but in 2023 he posted a YouTube video confirming he was almost six months sober after nearly 100 days in a US rehab facility.

Payne’s journey to stardom began when he was just 14-years-old at his lesser-known first audition for The X Factor.

The Wolverhampton teenager reached the judges’ house stage and no further in 2008, but came back two years later as Simon Cowell had asked.

At 16, Payne initially auditioned as a solo act but was given a second chance to come back as part of a group at Bootcamp, forming what would become one of the talent show’s biggest success stories – One Direction.

The band – comprising of Payne, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson – rose to international fame despite only placing third in the show.

They became one of the biggest pop groups in the world with five albums, four world tours, one movie and a memorable music video for Red Nose Day in 2013 which featured then prime minister David Cameron happening upon them dancing in front of Number 10 Downing Street.

But six years after they were formed, with more than 20 million albums sold, the band were placed on indefinite hiatus with Malik having already left in 2015 to pursue a solo career.

In 2021, Payne talked about how he had “social anxiety” and “stress” from being famous, and discussed the pressure his mental health was under while not having the freedom to go anywhere as a One Direction member.

He told the Diary Of The CEO Podcast: “It feels to me, like when we were in the band. The best way to secure us was to lock us in our rooms, and what is in the room? A mini-bar.

“So I had a party-for-one that seemed to carry on for many years of my life, and then you look back at how long you’ve been drinking? And Jesus Christ that’s a long time, even for someone as young as I am.”

Payne says he became an “angry person” and felt success was a “sacrifice”, as well as speaking about his time attending recovery programme Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).

Marking One Direction’s 10th anniversary in 2020, Payne shared a screenshot of a text message he sent to his father on the day he joined the group, reading: “I’m in a boyband.”

“What a journey… I had no idea what we were in for when I sent this text to my dad years ago at this exact time the band was formed,” he said.

In 2016, Payne signed a solo record deal with Capital Records UK.

He said at the time he was “really happy” to have signed with them, adding: “One Direction will always be my family; I’m now excited to show what I can do as a solo artist.”

Over his solo career, Payne released hits Strip That Down and Get Low.

Away from the studio and stage, Payne entered into a relationship with former Girls Aloud star Cheryl, the pair having first met on The X Factor when she was a judge.

In March 2017, the couple announced the birth of their son Bear.

Proud new father Payne shared a photo of himself cradling a baby with dark hair on Instagram, with the caption: “I’m incredibly happy to welcome our new baby boy into the world, it’s a moment that I will never forget for the rest of my life and my favourite memory I have so far.”

The singer would go on to speak proudly of his son in the years to come, saying during one awards ceremony that Bear “constantly inspires” him to be a better person.

In July 2018, Payne and Cheryl announced their split after two-and-a-half years together, and he was later romantically linked to models Naomi Campbell and Maya Henry.

He opened up about his separation from Cheryl, saying it was tough to break up in the public spotlight and that announcing it was “like breaking up twice”.

A year later, he went through a mental health crisis, which he later revealed in 2021 while speaking to Ant Middleton on his Straight Talking programme.

He said he was “quite lucky to be here still”, and added: “There’s times where that level of loneliness and people getting into you every day every so often… it’s like, ‘When will this end?’… that’s almost nearly killed me a couple of times.”

In August 2020, Payne got engaged to American Henry, but the pair split during lockdown and announced the engagement had been broken off in June 2021.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Payne helped provide more than 360,000 meals to people struggling as a result of the outbreak.

He donated to the Trussell Trust charity to support more than 100 food bank centres in Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent, Coventry, Sheffield, Nottingham and Bristol.

In 2023, he posted a video about being in an rehab facility in Louisiana.

He said: “I just kind of feel like I’ve got more of a grip on life and everything that was getting away from me, I just feel like I’ve got more of a handle on it.

“I just needed to take a little bit of time out for myself actually because 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.”

Born in August 1993, Payne was frequently ill as a young child due to issues with one of his kidneys.

In August last year, he postponed his scheduled tour of South America after suffering from a “serious kidney infection”.

Earlier this year, he released the track Teardrops, which was co-written with fellow boyband star JC Chasez of NSYNC fame.

Payne was most recently in a relationship with Kate Cassidy, and was announced as a judge on Netflix show Building The Band in August.