Liam Payne (30) will no longer be allowed to drive a car for the next six months. This is reported by the British “Mirror”, among others. The former One Direction singer was caught driving almost 20 km/h too much on the A40 Westway flyover in London after midnight on February 24th this year. The punishment has only now been determined: In addition to the driving ban, he must pay a fine of the equivalent of almost 340 euros and receive four “penalty points” (like penalty points in Flensburg).
The Briton expressed his guilty conscience in a letter to the Lavender Hill district court. “I didn’t follow the speed limit and I apologize for exceeding the speed limit,” it said. The court heard Payne’s case on October 9th, but the musician did not have to appear in person. He will only get rid of his four penalty points after three years.
In July, the singer opened up about his mental health struggles in an eight-minute YouTube video. In it he explains that he had been in bad shape in the past and had secretly sought help from a clinic in Louisiana. “I had to take some time out for myself because I was becoming someone I didn’t really recognize anymore,” says Payne.
A mixture of fame, alcohol and drugs were to blame for his “low point,” as he revealed in the podcast “The Diary of a CEO” in 2021. He never publicly revealed his health problems during his One Direction time: “I was very good at hiding it all,” said Payne. Even thoughts of suicide haunted him at times.
On YouTube, Liam Payne apologized for many of the things he had said in the past, including about his former bandmates. He is now grateful for the support of those around him and for the time off that he urgently needed.
