Things are going from bad to worse for Liam Payne as his ex-fiancée Maya Henry launches blistering attacks on former One Direction singer online and clips of him dancing at his former bandmate Niall Horan‘s concert have gone viral.

YouTube star Henry, 23, has accused her ex of ‘weaponising’ the boyband’s fan base and obsessively making contact with her through different phone numbers, more than two years after they split up.

Meanwhile videos of the Wolverhampton-born singer sporting a T Bird-style hairdo, leather jacket and dance moves at Horan’s Buenos Aires concert, while teasing screaming fans and smirking have curled people’s toes around the world.

In recent years, the singer has become something of an internet sensation after a string of bizarre onscreen appearances which have become fodder for ‘memes’ and online jokes – and it has led some to dub him the ‘David Brent’ of music.

Liam Payne has become something of an internet sensation over the last few years following a string of bizarre appearances. Pictured on Logan Paul’s podcast Impaulsive in June 2022

In 2022, a bizarre interview with Liam Payne in which he discussed Will Smith ‘slapping’ Chris Rock but appeared to have a strange accent

Some of Payne’s earliest faux pas date back to before the band split up when he landed himself in hot water with fans over Zayn Malik‘s departure.

In 2015, fans were left in uproar after the four remaining band members; Payne, Harry Styles, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson, posed with some fans while holding up a poster of the band members.

However, as he smiled while carrying the poster, Payne appeared to deliberately cover up Malik’s face – and faced the wrath of fans for doing so.

The cheeky star wrote on Twitter: ‘#makinglightofasituation sorry for the laughs guys.’

However, fans were quick to react and hit out at Liam for making light of his friend’s absence.

Clips of Payne at Niall Horan’s concert in Buenos Aires over the weekend, among other things he has said and done, have led some to dub him ‘David Brent’

Liam rose to fame alongside bandmates Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan in One Direction. Pictured in 2011

‘How dare you cover Zayn’s face? Don’t f**king do it again,’ one fan wrote.

Another said: ‘Cover your own face next time.’

Two years after the band split up in 2018, he was blasted once again for what fans felt was seemingly an erasure of Malik’s presence in the band as he posted a tweet about the fact that One Direction was trending on the social media platform.

In it, he tagged Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Harry Styles; but stopped short of including the final One Direction member, Zayn Malik.

And it wasn’t just Twitter where Payne was picking up critics. That same year he was also blasted over a ‘cringeworthy’ Instagram post in which he mocked people who take commercial flights and appeared to boast that he travels via private jet.

The singer posted a photo on Instagram of himself sitting on a carpet, showing off his scarlet tracksuit bottoms emblazoned with the Mona Lisa, and sticking up his middle finger at the camera.

He wrote as the caption: ‘You can only get jet lag from a jet the rest of y’all have got plane lag.’

He swiftly deleted the post, however this didn’t stop people sharing screengrabs of the photo and Liam’s caption on Twitter and mocking him for the  ‘cringeworthy’ post.

Payne shares a son named Bear with former X Factor judge, Cheryl. Pictured at the Brit Awards in 2018

Payne is currently in a relationship with Kate Cassidy, a social media influencer. Pictured in Dubai in 2023

Aside from his social media content, the singer has also come under scrutiny for some bizarre onscreen appearances over the years; most famously, his strange interview after the 2022 Academy Awards when he was asked about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock on stage.

He was speaking live from the red carpet at the Elton John AIDS Foundation’s annual Academy Awards viewing party at West Hollywood Park where he defended his friend Will Smith for slapping Chris Rock earlier in the night.

However, the exchange left viewers scratching their heads when he debuted a ‘valley’ twang – before admitting he hadn’t even been on US soil for two years.

In a video posted to Twitter only six days prior to promote Unicef’s Soccer Aid, the Night Changes hitmaker speaks with a notably British accent.

Weighing in on the controversy, the former One Direction bandmember claimed how there had been ‘three losers in one fight’, adding, ‘He had the right to do what he did’.

He also reminisced on his friendship with the two names on everyone’s lips, revealing that Will had been his neighbour and had known Chris since he was a teenager.

Liam’s ex, Maya Henry, has recently opened up about her three-year relationship with the One Direction singer online and accused him of sending her messages long after their romance ended

The couple (pictured) were together from 2019 until 2022 and throughout lockdown

Liam said: ‘Will Smith actually used to live behind my house, I had the pleasure of knowing his son and daughter very well and we did Men In Black 3 with him.

‘I believe whatever he felt that he did, he had the right to do. I also felt there were three losers in one fight.

‘He didn’t know being Chris Rock, he didn’t wanna do what he had to being Will Smith, and she did nothing, being Jada.

‘It was a powerful moment for me to sit and watch one of the world’s best emoters we’ve ever seen speak from the heart and I would rather take the beauty out of the situation than take the pain.

‘But I had to leave my chair, I’ll be honest with you, it cut me really deep and I don’t get deep about these things but I’m a big movie fan.

‘Out of a horrible moment there was a little bit of beauty in what came on and I’m sure everyone’s apologetic about what happened, shouldn’t happen.

‘But ask yourself what would you do in the situation, I don’t know how we would react, we’re all human.’

Not only did Payne’s words confuse viewers as his analysis of the situation was broadcast on UK morning television; but his accent too.

Viewers at home rushed to their keyboards to share their surprise at Liam’s twang, writing, ‘OMG what is this accent? Sort it out Liam, cringe [laughing emoji].’

‘What’s with the accent and what was he actually saying? Rambling word salad.’

‘The Accent Police are out in full force over this clip.’

The clip quickly generated just as much interest as the onstage slap itself as Payne found himself at the centre of an internet storm.

He later clarified he’d had ‘a lot to drink’ on the night in question; but added he is a ‘social chameleon’ whose accent is ‘ever-changing’ depending on who he is around, before insisting he is normally ‘good at accents’.

Some of Liam Payne’s earliest faux pas were when he was still in the band. In 2015 he received backlash for covering up Zayn Malik’s face (who had recently left One Direction) on a poster of the band

But it was perhaps the now notorious podcast episode in which Payne discussed his solo career and time in One Direction with YouTube star Logan Paul that has cemented his status as internet laughing stock and led to people making direct comparisons between the singer and Ricky Gervais’s The Office character, David Brent.

During the interview on the Impaulsive podcast which has been clipped into several cringeworthy moments since it was first recorded in the summer of 2022, Payne took aim at his former bandmate Zayn Malik, suggested his solo career had been the most successful of all the band members and also claimed One Direction was formed around him in the first place.

When asked for his thoughts about Malik, Payne branded him a ‘d***’ and discussed a post by Malik’s then-girlfriend Gigi Hadid about how her partner was ‘respectful‘.

The comment has been interpreted by fans as a reference to the allegation that Gigi’s mother Yolanda Hadid made last year, that Zayn had shoved her into a dresser and called her a ‘f***ing Dutch sl*t’.

Liam continued to talk about Zayn, saying there were ‘many reasons why I dislike Zayn’ but that he will ‘always be on his side’ because of Zayn’s alleged tough upbringing.

He said: ‘There’s many reasons why I dislike Zayn and there’s many reasons why I’ll always, always be on his side.

‘If I had had to go through what he went through, through his growth and whatever else. You know are your parents very supportive?

‘My parents are overly supportive to the point where it’s annoying at times and they don’t even mind me saying that. And Zayn had a different upbringing in that sense.’

Although he appeared to claim he had sympathy with Malik and cared for the ex-One Direction member, Payne received enormous backlash from fans over his comments.

The criticism was so fierce that Payne tweeted a public apology to Malik later that year, saying he had a ‘chip on my shoulder’ and ‘took it out on everyone else’.

He added that he ‘loves my boys’ appearing to refer to the One Direction members – Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Zayn and Louis.

Liam said that the criticism had led to things going ‘quite dark’ for him and that he didn’t leave his house for three months, but that he was able to laugh at the jokes.

Elsewhere in the Logan Paul interview, Payne spoke of an alleged incident where another One Direction member ‘threw him up against a wall‘.

He claims he told the bandmate: ‘If you don’t remove those hands, there’s a high likelihood you’ll never use them again.’

Although clips from the interview went viral at the time, they have recently resurfaced thanks to comments Liam’s ex, Maya Henry, has made online.

Speaking on TikTok, the influencer claimed the bandmate involved in the alleged incident was Malik, after a fan suggested they thought it was Louis Tomlinson.

She said she ‘could not hold this information any more’, explaining: ‘I see this all the time, everywhere, I’ve heard this insufferable story so many times…he told me it was Zayn, so…’

As the interview resurfaces and sends fans wild once again, people have begun making comparisons between Payne and David Brent; with some even re-enacting Payne’s words on the podcast while dressed up as The Office character.

After watching videos on TikTok of his dancing at Niall Horan’s concert in Argentina at the weekend, others have left comments branding him ‘David Brent’ as they cringe at his antics.