Liam Payne reveals he had a secret stay at an addiction clinic and is now celebrating sobriety

Last year, former One Direction boyband star Liam Payne practically made the internet explode when he appeared on Logan Paul's podcast, "Impaulsive," revealing unsavory details about his time performing alongside Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik.

Some of those details included personal fights between the guys, and what he thinks of his former bandmates now. Specifically, he spoke rather poorly about former bandmate Zayn. Now, the "Strip That Down" singer is being completely unfiltered again, except this time, he’s calling those remarks a turning point in his life, which led to a 100-day stay in rehab.

In a YouTube video posted directly to his official account on July 8, Liam revealed he is six months sober after spending 100 days in a Louisiana recovery facility. 

“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,” he said. 

“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 recognize 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.”

Speaking about his “Impaulsive” comments, he reflected, “One of the biggest remarks I made was about the One Direction thing… and a lot of self-protection, I suppose, in that moment, more than anything,” 

“The rest of the boys really stuck by me when I needed them most, they kinda came to the rescue. Even Zayn, as well, which is why I did send him a little thank you online. It came across really big-headed didn’t it?”

The remark in question was implying to Logan Paul that the rumours surrounding Zayn Malik being physically abusive to then-girlfriend and mother of his child Gigi Hadid were true, adding, “"There's many reasons why I dislike Zayn, and there's many reasons why I'll always, always be on his side."

During his chat with Paul, he also claimed he outsold everyone in the band with his debut single "Strip That Down," which fans proved false. On Twitter they pointed out the song has 886 million streams, while Harry Styles' Grammy Award-winning song, "Watermelon Sugar," has a whopping 1.7 billion streams.

Liam also claimed in his chat with Paul that an unnamed member of the group "threw [him] up a wall,” hinting at a physical altercation and bad blood between the former best friends.

Now, in his direct-to-camera YouTube video, he clarifies that his comments came from a place of hurt and addiction. “A lot of what I said came from the wrong place. I was so angry at what was going on around me and instead of taking a look inwards I decided to look outwards at everybody else and I just think yeah I took it out on everybody else, which is just wrong, really.”

Speaking of his journey to sobriety and his stay in rehab, he describes it as a way to figure out how he got there, realizing that his inflammatory comments that nearly broke Twitter were his attempt to stay in the news and “stay relevant.”

 “I have had a lot of time to recollect over those moments. I kinda had to go away to kinda get better. The whole thing up to that point was just a scramble to stay relevant,” he said. “My own frustrations with my own career and where I kind landed, I took shots at everybody else which is wrong,” he explained. “So obviously, I want to apologize for that because obviously, that is not me. …You don’t really realize the impact that your words might have on other people.”

Noting that the rest of the guys rallied around him - including Zayn – when they realized he was struggling and in rehab, he spoke a bit about being cut off from everything while inside the facility. “I didn’t have my phone for nearly 100 days. I didn’t connect with the outside world at all. Upon leaving, the hardest part was turning the phone back on because it was a little bit scary,” he added.

He now sees his time on Paul’s podcast as a “life-changing [moment] that saved my life in a way,” and said he has “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.”