One Direction's Liam Payne: 'I Am in No Way Homophobic'

The band members may be splitting up to pursue their own projects, but One Direction star Liam Payne found himself in hot water with some fans last week after the boy band singer seemed to imply women can't date women during a recent concert.

While introducing the track "Girl Almighty," Payne told the crowd, "This is my favorite song off the last album, and it is about trying to find that number one woman of your life, which none of you can relate to, 'cause most of you are girls. Except for the boys in here, you know what I'm talking about."

Members of the band's large LGBT following were angered by his offhand statement. Several people began posting on social media, accusing the singer of homophobia and claiming his words not only assumed everyone in the audience was heterosexual, but also implied lesbians and bisexual people don't exist. Payne took to Twitter to fire back at his accusers, saying he simply misspoke and his comments were taken out of context.

While some fans were angered by the apparent heteronormative statement he made on stage, others came to the Paynye's defense with the hashtag #WeLoveLiam trending on Twitter following the singer's rant and apology on social media.