Boy George has said he regrets his “not very nice” comments made about Liam Payne shortly before his death.
- READ MORE: Liam Payne 1993-2024: One Direction star who helped spark a pop phenomenon
The Culture Club singer spoke about the incident to the High Performance podcast, where he had speculated the singer might be “off his nut”.
“In the case of Liam Payne, I’d watched him a few days before it happened,” he told the podcast. “I remember watching online and I’d actually put a message under a post saying ‘He’s off his nut’, which wasn’t very nice, but I felt it. I felt like he was out of control.”
“And when it happened, it just hit me, the same way that Amy Winehouse hit me, because it felt so senseless.”
The singer also shared his reaction to Payne’s death, who tragically died aged 31 a month ago after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires. “I was up at five in the morning, and it came up on the American news, and I literally was like ‘What the fuck?’ I was literally like ‘No, this isn’t real’. I couldn’t take it in,” he said.
Boy George continued: “I care about his family. I watched the dad, heartbreaking. I was quite tearful about it. I actually really felt very sad.”
Boy George and Payne previously feuded shortly after the 2013 BRIT Awards, where Boy George took to X/Twitter to accuse the One Direction member of snubbing his niece.
“Top marks to Harry Styles for stopping for a picture with my niece and Bollox’s to Liam and the disrespectful wanker of a minder!”, he wrote at the time. The post has since been deleted.
In response, Payne claimed Boy George was telling “porkies”, adding: “Firstly thanks for getting my name wrong three times, then asking me where is liam?…awkward.
“Then when you finally got it right saying you wanted Niall instead. If you would have asked me for a picture i would have stopped bro I just did what you said and pointed niall out for you so u just keep wearing ur strange hats and enjoy yourself my little Georgie pie… It’s still not cool you just look weird.”
Payne’s funeral was held yesterday (November 20), where ex-partner Cheryl, members of One Direction and Simon Cowell were amongst those who attended the funeral.
The private service also saw Payne’s girlfriend Kate Cassidy, Adrian Chiles, James Corden, Marvin and Rochelle Humes, Scott Mills and more in attendance. It took place in the town of Amersham in Buckinghamshire, just north-west of London, near the village of Chalfont St Giles where Payne lived.
He is survived by his seven-year-old son Bear, who he shared with Cheryl.
Elsewhere, Eminem, Janet Jackson and Boy George are among the 2025 Songwriters Hall of Fame nominees.
