There is a new breakout star on TikTok, and he’s not a breakout star at all. Heartthrob, dormant pop icon, public menace, call him what you want, Liam Payne is having a moment on social media, and we are front row with snacks.
With 5.1 million followers of his own, it's unsurprising that Payne is making an impact on the platform. However, it’s his girlfriend Kate Cassidy (and her creative direction) who has granted us unfettered access into the behind-the-scenes life of the former One Direction member – garnering millions of views in the process.
We're talking OOTN (that's 'outfit of the night' to you and I) videos where Payne confesses to not picking or packing any of his own clothes. We're talking videos of Payne marching around his hotel room in Argentina saying his sweet and sour chicken 'tastes like a sock', before joking, 'I don't know how I know what socks taste like.'
We find out he 'drags' Cassidy to go bowling 'at least four times a week', and then watch him repeatedly toss his ball into the gutter with gusto. And, of course, we see the couple engage in viral TikTok dances like Freak Nasty's 'Da' Dip', captioned 'one take wonders'.
It's content that will put you into a meditative, nay, trance-like state. Unfortunately, it does nothing to disprove people’s preconceptions about the former boy band singer (more on that later) or challenge his status as the undisputed David Brent of One Direction.
Of course, there are also viral videos of Payne outside the realm of his relationship. Most recently, multiple clips of him at the concert of former One Direction member, Niall Horan, in Argentina did the rounds, where a denim-clad Payne was seen leaning out of his box to high five fans and then proceeded to perform the Macarena.
Once the algorithm has recognised that these videos are like catnip to loyal and sceptical fans alike, a rabbit hole emerges. On TikTok, compilations of Payne’s most Payne-esque moments are amassing hundreds of thousands of views. These include resurfaced clips of the singer’s notorious routine to his 2017 hit ‘Strip That Down’, a video of him singing one of his lesser-known songs before turning the mic towards an audience that doesn’t know the words, and a clip of him weighing in on Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, jaw akimbo, on the after party red carpet.
Not forgetting his viral interview on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast in 2023, where he, among other things, claimed to outsell ‘everybody within the band’ with his first solo single (which has been disproved), that One Direction was formed around him, and that one band member once threw him against a wall and he responded, ‘if you don’t remove those hands, there’s a high likelihood you’ll never use them again’.
Payne later apologised for the interview in a YouTube video and said, ‘A lot of what I said came from the wrong place. […] The whole thing up to that point was just a scramble to stay relevant.’
At best a problematic fave, to many Payne is proving just to be problematic. His ex-fiancé, Maya Henry, for one, recently published a novel which she says is inspired by her relationship with the pop singer. The male protagonist in the novel, Looking Forward, who is a member of a successful British boy band, is portrayed as an objectionable character to put it lightly.
Henry, who first met Payne at a One Direction meet and greet when she was 15 and he was 21, has reiterated that the book is ‘fiction’, but claims she wrote it 'to help be a voice for women'.
While they ultimately called time on their relationship in 2022, Henry recently posted a self-proclaimed ‘rant’ about her ex on TikTok, which has been watched by more than 3 million people, in which she made some shocking allegations about the singer that cannot be listed for legal reasons.
All of which has invited even more eyes on Payne than usual – and not in a good way. One X user shared a video of someone doing back flips on a Subway carriage with the caption, ‘Me showing up to the fourth annual Liam Payne mass cancellation.’ Another fan shared a video of Payne being painted out of a picture of One Direction, leaving just Horan, Malik, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson.
A third shared another clip of Payne at Horan’s concert with the caption, ‘Liam Payne, I fear you’ll never recover from the public humiliation you have caused yourself over and over again.’ You get the picture.
Payne’s virality is certainly something to behold – but it’s not something to be celebrated. Despite his past confessions about struggling with addiction and his mental health, it's possible that his 'scramble to stay relevant' is causing him, and potentially others, more harm than good. Between his public actions, his interview gaffes and his TikToks, Payne is having a moment for all the wrong reasons.
Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, working across pop culture, TV and news. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things TV for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow shows with equal respect).