Liam Payne says fame made him "nuts".

Liam Payne

Liam Payne

The 24-year-old singer shot to fame as one member of boy band One Direction after they finished in third place on 'The X Factor' in 2010 when they were in their teens, and Liam has now admitted he wasn't himself at the height of his fame.

He said: "Fame made me a little bit nuts and distracted me a lot from the person I was. And it pissed me off in the end, because it was like, 'You could have been this guy, but you chose to do this.' Nobody really knew anything about me. I put on a front that wasn't really me."

The 'Bedroom Floor' hitmaker - who has 13-month-old son Bear with his girlfriend Cheryl Tweedy - chose to take some time away from the spotlight before pursuing a solo career when One Direction announced their hiatus in 2015, and he says he's now back to his old self once again.

Speaking to #Legend magazine, he added: "But now that I've had my time away, you slowly, naturally become the person you were before you started, but with a lot more knowledge. So I feel a lot more myself than I ever did before, rather than being a part of something and having a part to play or treading on eggshells around someone. And when I sat back and thought about all the silly things I might have said and done wrong - not that I have any regrets, because I think whatever happened, happened - I think that now is the time to not be that person. I remember the day we finished, because of the place I was in, I was quite happy that we had a break. I said to the person with me at the time, 'Thank god I don't have to play that person again for a long time.' It was exhausting and I couldn't keep up with myself."

It isn't the first time Liam has spoken about fame getting the better of him either, as he previously admitted he found life in the spotlight "strange".

He said: "I found it very strange. I struggled in places. It was scary. It was, at times. I remember being in NY, and I love New York, I love New York, but I remember feeling like: 'I can't be here.'

"I was going to a restaurant with my dad and my dad, bless him, was like: 'Why don't we just go out somewhere for a burger?' And I was like, 'it's not that simple.'

"So we went. We had to change restaurants 3 times, my mum got knocked over by a paparazzi, then I was like 'Right, I'm done. I've had enough. That's enough.' Then I threw a little tantrum and I was young, I was 19 ... but you have to just grasp those things. And I do now, I understand it all more now."

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