Liam Payne has hit out at the media’s reaction to Justin Bieber’s recent Instagram post, in which the Canadian star reflected on some of his past mistakes.
On Monday night, The Biebs shared a lengthy post on social media, in which he discussed the effects he thinks that his rise to global fame had on him.
Writing on Instagram, he reflected on the dark periods in his life, in which he admitted included “heavy drug use”, being “disrespectful to women” and making “every bad decision you could have thought of”.
However, while Justin won a lot of support online for his honest post, Liam was left unimpressed with the way certain media outlets had reported on it, particularly the emphasis many put on his admission to using “heavy drugs”.
Sharing a screengrab of a Twitter Moment with the headline “Justin Bieber admits to ‘heavy drug use’ and his struggles with fame in candid post”, Liam fumed: “So this is the one thing the worlds media picks up on after all he said ...? Can anyone else see the problem here…?”
Addressing Justin directly, Liam added: “I think what you did yesterday was incredibly brave and you deserve a little more respect.”
Discussing how he moved on from his past mistakes, Justin wrote: “It’s taken years for me to bounce back from all of these terrible decisions, fix broken relationships and change relationship habits. Luckily God blessed me with extraordinary people who love me.”
Earlier this year, the Love Yourself singer spoke for the first time about his history of substance abuse, in a joint interview with Vogue magazine alongside his wife Hailey Bieber.
A month after his Vogue interview, Justin announced he was taking some time out from the spotlight to focus on his marriage and what he described as his own “deep-rooted issues”.
“I have been looking, seeking, trial and error as most of us do, I am now very focused on repairing some of the deep rooted issues that I have as most of us have, so that I don’t fall apart, so that I can sustain my marriage and be the father I want to be,” he explained.