One Direction star Zayn Malik abandoned the bands On the Road Again tour last week and flew back to the UK to recuperate from stress and presumably to repair his relationship with fiance Perrie Edwards. One Direction fans were devastated when Zayn left the tour after rumors emerged that he had cheated on his fiance with a blonde tourist whilst the Zayn was in Phuket, Thailand, with his bandmates.
According to the Daily Mail Perrie was photographed leaving the home she shares with Zayn just hours after he arrived home. Zayn Malik’s fans were concerned for his health and welfare, with many tweeting messages of support to star. Over the weekend, Zayn’s bandmates, Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Niall Horan, and Louis Tomlinson, were praised by fans when they introduced themselves by name at a concert in Manila. The Mirror reported that many fans felt that this was a show of support for Zayn Malik.
According to the Mail , many of those same fans have reacted with fury tonight and Zayn’s bandmate Liam Payne covered the star’s face during a photo shoot with fans. The star then tweeted a photograph of the remaining band members holding up a poster of One Direction and it shows Liam covering Zayn Malik’s face with his hand. He tweeted the picture with the hashtag #makinglightofasituation.
#makinglightofasituation sorry for the laughs guys pic.twitter.com/p9GyIMLALV
— Liam (@LiamPayne) March 23, 2015
In a short period of time, Liam’s tweet has been re-tweeted over 75,000 time and has been favorited over 107,000 times. Many of Zayn Malik’s fans failed to see the funny side of Liam’s message though, and many fired back messages criticizing Liam.
Things took an even more bizarre turn when a Justin Bieber fan joined the debate by asking Liam, “isn’t it kinda depressing for you to know that Justin Bieber will always be more successful than you?”
Liam hit back instantly with the retort, “How many times have I been arrested?”
@arianasmccann how many times have I been arrested
— Liam (@LiamPayne) March 23, 2015
This led to a Twitter war between fans of the two stars which lasted for hours.
One Direction fans hope Zayn Malik will be well enough to rejoin the rest of the band when the tour moves to South Africa on Saturday, March 28. It does, however, seem increasingly unlikely that Zayn Malik will return to the tour, as a number of sources, including Irish television station RTE and Yahoo! Celebrity , are reporting this evening that Zayn wants to leave One Direction permanently and has instructed lawyers to find a way out of his contract commitments.
A source is quoted as saying that Zayn is “convinced he wants out. He is finding it all too much and wants to quit the group.”
It seems that Zayn Malik and other members of the band are under tremendous pressure and that tensions are beginning to cause rifts in the group. It would seem that this story has some way to run.
[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]