Jason HetheringtonIt’s been four years since One Direction went on hiatus, but Liam Payne admits that the former band mates are still holding grudges.

“Definitely in some part, yeah,” he tells GQ Hype. “We had our differences throughout the whole experience with some things. I still think about some stuff that was said and done that now I would do differently, but then that’s all part of growing up. Being in One Direction was such a schoolyard mentality somehow — the One Direction University, I call it.”

For example, Liam says he hasn’t spoken to Zayn Malik since he left the group to go solo in early 2015.

“I think with Zayn’s particular exit and the way he chose to go, we haven’t really heard from him since he left,” he explains. “He didn’t even say goodbye, if I am being honest. It was a really sordid scenario, from our side certainly. A bit strange. It’s difficult.”

He does acknowledge that Zayn “genuinely was the best singer in One Direction, hand on heart, out of all of us,” and that he relates to Zayn’s struggles with anxiety, but didn’t quite know how to reach out at the time.

“I didn’t want him to feel like he was going through this all alone in some ways, or that we were all out to get him,” he says, adding, “I hope he has good people around him, but I don’t, at this stage, think it’s anything the rest of us can solve.”

Liam’s debut solo album, LP1, comes out December 6.

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