During a recent interview with The Independent, the sharp-tongue solo musician — who drops a new album this upcoming January — made it crystal clear that his feelings for Logan are not just an ordinary dislike — it’s a genuine, deep-seated hatred. The “Lemonade” singer also revealed that his disdain is deeply rooted in the drama that engulfed his former bandmate, the late Liam Payne, who died at the age of 31 after falling from a third-floor balcony at a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Tomlinson’s scathingly candid comments are a direct consequence to Payne’s highly controversial appearance on Paul’s Impaulsive podcast in 2022, a couple of years before his death. As One Direction fans may recall, Payne went on an explosive rant during the interview, calling former bandmate Zayn Malik a “dickhead,” saying there were “many reasons” why he disliked him. He also spilled tea on the strained relationships within the group, stating that he and Tomlinson became “best friends” but originally did not like one another.

The interview became a PR nightmare for Payne, igniting massive fan backlash that reportedly led to him spending 100 days rehab and later issuing a public apology, admitting that he was “angry at what was going on around me.”

But Tomlinson blames Paul for the nightmare debacle. 

“I f–king forever despise [Logan Paul], horrible, horrible little f-cker,” he told The Independent. “I think that’s also the problem with some of this new ‘media.’ I would like to think most journalists … some journalists have a duty of care.”

Another controversial moment from the Impaulsive interview was when Payne also deemed himself as the de facto band leader, which triggered even more heated reactions from the fanbase. But Tomlinson believes that Payne was essentially accurate when he made that claim.

“It was definitely a role that was assigned to him. That is the truth,” Tomlinson told the outlet.

Tomlinson also got candid about navigating grief in the past few years — after his mother, Joanna Deakin, died from leukemia in 2016, his sister Félicité passed away from an accidental overdose in 2019, and Payne’s death in October 2024.

“I naively thought that, at this point, I’d unfortunately be a little bit more well-versed with grief than other people my age. I thought that might mean something, but it didn’t at all,” Tomlinson explained.

“It’s something I’ll never really accept, I don’t think,” he said of Payne’s death.