Liam Payne Reflects On 'Overworked' One Direction Days: Staying 'Would Have Killed Me'

Liam Payne says leaving his One Direction days behind was an absolute necessity. On the podcast "Table Manners with Jessie Ware," the 26-year-old recalled the difficulty he experienced when navigating massive fame with the British pop group, revealing that despite it being "pretty scary at first" to walk away, he knew he "needed to stop, definitely" for the sake of his own health. "It would have killed me, 100 percent," he said of staying in the band. "We were definitely overworked … I had no personal life." Though the experience was undoubtedly tough, Liam went on to say that he's now "the happiest" he's "ever been."