One Direction’s Liam Payne says he’s over 100 days sober, thanks fans for support

By Alli Rosenbloom, CNN

(CNN) — Liam Payne is heading in a new direction.

Earlier this week, the One Direction alum revealed to iFL TV that he’s “over 100 days” sober, saying, “I feel amazing, I feel really, really good.”

“The support from the fans and everything’s been really good too. I’m super happy,” Payne added.

Payne has been open about his struggle with alcoholism in the past. In 2019, he told Men’s Health Australia that he he struggled to keep up after the talent show “The X Factor” shot him to stardom as he became part of the massively popular boy band One Direction alongside Zayn Malik and Harry Styles.

He added that he often drank before going on stage in an effort to manage the stress.

“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,” he said at the time. “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.”

Looking ahead, Payne told iFL TV this week that in addition to being sober, he’s also working on a new album that he’s “really excited” about.

“I definitely want to tour this time. It’s just unusual because I wasn’t sure I was going to tour for a long time. I was kind of over it a little bit but I’m really excited to get back on the road and go and see all the fans,” he said.

Payne was a member of boyband One Direction between 2010 and 2015 alongside Styles, Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan. One Direction announced they were taking a “hiatus” in 2015. Payne later released his debut solo album in 2019 titled “LP1.”

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Kendall Trammell contributed to this report.