Liam Payne Reveals 'Toxic' Life In One Direction, Alcohol And Mental Health Struggles

It's been almost a decade since Liam Payne rose to fame as one-fifth of the pop boyband One Direction. Five albums, four world tours and multiple awards are proof of the band's success. The band "achieved milestones that even The Beatles didn't reach" by having their first four albums debut No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, CNN reports.

Despite all the band's prosperity, the English singer remembers this time as lonely and accentuated with alcohol abuse, according to Men's Health Australia. In the July issue of the magazine, Payne opens up about his struggles with the dark side of the industry.

“When you’re doing hundreds and hundreds of [concerts] and it’s the same 22 songs at the same time every single day, even if you’re not happy, you’ve got to go out there,” he says.

“It’s almost like putting the Disney costume on before you step up on stage and underneath the Disney costume I was pissed quite a lot of the time because there was no other way to get your head around what was going on. I mean it was fun. We had an absolute blast but there were certain parts of it where it just got a little bit toxic.”

Payne was only 14 when he found stardom on the hit British show "X-Factor." The almost instant fame forced to do what so many child-stars before him had to do: grow up, fast — all while media and fans scrutinized his every move.

“It’s difficult when you have the level of fame that we had in the band,” he explains. “There have been a lot of people in trouble with mental health that aren’t really getting the help that they need and I think that’s a bit of a problem in our industry," Payne says. "It’s the same [expletive] that happens to everyone, that’s been happening since the 70’s. You know what the traps are and if you are lucky enough, like me, to be able to get out of that scenario and back into a sense of normality, then you know it’s a bit different.”

Since One Direction went on hiatus in 2016, Payne has been able to achieve some sort of normalcy (as much as an ex-boyband member can get). He's released a few singles in 2017 and 2018 and even welcomed his first child and son, Bear, who is currently 2-years-old.

After all he's been through at such a young age in his life, the father still shows appreciation for his struggle saying, “I’ve got a lot of things wrong in my time, but they were also the moments that I’ve learned the most about myself.”