Louis Tomlinson is setting the record straight on Liam Payne.

The former One Direction star opened up about mourning Payne, who died in October 2024, in a new interview with Rolling Stone UK.

This year, the since-dissolved boy band marked the 15th anniversary of its founding, an occasion Tomlinson said created complicated emotions.

"It was really uncomfortable, actually, the 15th anniversary, because the (collective) feeling to celebrate is as important, if not more important than ever, on behalf of Liam," he told the outlet. Payne died after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina.

While in previous years Tomlinson avoided nostalgia, this year, he told Rolling Stone, he found himself reflecting, describing Payne's death as "unjust" and "frustrating."

"It just brought up those feelings, although I'm still living with them anyway," he said, adding of Payne's death: "It was really, really, impossibly difficult for me to deal with losing Liam."

"Naively, I thought that because at this point, I'm relatively well versed in grief for my age, that it might soften the blow," he added. Tomlinson's mother died from cancer in 2016, and his sister died from an accidental overdose in 2019. "It's very different. I've never lost a friend before."

Tomlinson went on to describe Payne as the linchpin of the once-dominant band. He was more experienced, the singer revealed, claiming that by the time Payne auditioned for the X Factor, where the band was originally formed, he was leagues ahead of Tomlinson and fellow bandmates Zayn Malik, Harry Styles and Niall Horan.

"None of us would have admitted it at the time, because you have a lot of pride as a young lad, but we all looked up to him like that," he told Rolling Stone.

Watching the increased criticism of Payne before his death was painful as well, Tomlinson said. Payne drew ire from some after appearing on Logan Paul's "Impaulsive" podcast in 2022 and criticizing his former bandmates.

"Anyone who knew him (Liam) personally would know how deeply unfair that was," he told the outlet. "Anything that he got wrong in life, Liam – which, by the way, we all do daily – it was never through malice. It was only through miscommunication – him just not being able to express himself in the way he needed to.

"He was just a very misunderstood person, I think, from a public perspective," Tomlinson added. "If there is ever any judgment on his character, I think nine times out of 10, you can reflect on that, and the reflection is that he was someone who just wanted to be liked."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Louis Tomlinson opens up about mourning 'misunderstood' Liam Payne

Reporting by Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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