TikTok star Max Balegde has responded to accusations he bullied late One Direction star Liam Payne.
The 25-year-old internet personality drew attention from fans when they noticed he removed a string of videos he had made in which he criticised Liam - who tragically fell to his death from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires last week. Following a barrage of comments about his social media content, Max released a statement via social media in which he said he removed videos as a mark of respect for the For You singer. He also addressed the fact he had been absent from social media in the wake of the shock news of Liam's passing.
Taking to Instagram Stories on Wednesday, Max wrote: "Hey guys - you might have noticed that I’ve been away from socials for a few days, and I’ve had a lot of people ask me why I took down my videos about Liam Payne. The reason for both of these is out of respect to this tragic news.
He continued: "I always want my pop culture based content to be light hearted, so it of course didn’t feel right to leave those videos up given the awful news.” Max closed the statement, writing: “Sending love to everyone affected by this loss” - and added a heart shaped hand emoji. His post came after a number of fans appeared to turn on him over past social media content.
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max_balegde/instagram)One fan wrote on X: "no one is talking about how max balegde deleted all of his tiktoks (a lot) where he talks about/ bullied liam. he knew he did wrong." And another commented: "I used to really like max but seeing him make fun of Liam and bully him really left me incredibly disappointed."
The music world has been reeling since Liam's shock death, with his One Direction bandmates sharing tributes to him online. Harry Styles wrote, as part of a touching statement: "His greatest joy was making other people happy, and it was an honour to be alongside him as he did it."
Zayn Malik, who had a fractured friendship with the singer, wrote: "I never got to thank you for supporting me through some of the most difficult times in my life. When I was missing home as a 17 yr old kid you would always be there with a positive outlook and reassuring smile and let me know you were my friend and that I was loved. Even though you were younger than me you were always more sensible than me, you were headstrong, opinionated, and gave no f**ks about telling people when they were wrong. Even though we butted heads because of this a few times, I always secretly respected you for it."
Louis Tomlinson wrote: “I feel beyond lucky to have had you in my life but I’m really struggling with the idea of saying goodbye. I’m so grateful that we got even closer since the band, speaking on the phone for hours , reminiscing about all the thousands of amazing memories we had together is a luxury I thought I’d have with you for life. I would have loved to share the stage with you again but it wasn’t to be.”
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