Who could ever forget Zayn Malik‘s game-changing decision to leave One Direction back in 2015? Well Liam Payne, 28, certainly hasn’t — and the “Strip That Down” crooner even made an epic (and hilarious) TikTok video to rehash the fallout of Zayn, 28, quitting the beloved boy band. The Sept. 6 video, which can be seen below, features Liam imitating the meeting that apparently took place between himself and his former bandmates (Harry Styles, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson) with their band management after Zayn left the group.
In the footage, Liam is perfectly in-sync as he mouths the audio of a confused man yelling, “Are we absolutely sure what direction we’re going?” He also wrote an on-screen caption that reads, “POV the meeting after zayn quit. forgot I had this in draft.” In the caption of the video, the British superstar wrote, “#sunshine 😂😂😂 forgot I made this a while ago hope you see the funny side.”
@liampayne #sunshine 😂😂😂 forgot I made this a while ago hope you see the funny side
As One Direction fans will sadly never forget, Zayn left the band in March 2015, five years after they formed on the UK version of The X-Factor. Liam, Harry, Niall and Louis continued on as a group of four and put out one last album, Made in the Am, before they decided to go on an indefinite hiatus and all pursue solo careers. Since then, Liam has released one EP, 2018’s First Time, and one studio album, LP1, which was released in December 2019. His single “Strip That Down” was a huge hit, and peaked at number ten on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 2017.
Ever since the band broke up, its former members have been open about how there’s no hard feelings between them. In fact, Liam even teased in an Instagram Live session in June 2021 after a phone call with Harry that if he had it his way, the group would reunite. “I’d love for us to get in a room at some point,” he admitted. “I think it would be the best thing. We’ve all said it outside, we’ve just not said it to each other. There’s a song in there somewhere. Somebody write that down!”