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Liam Payne reveals he was director of £500million company at 22 but admits: ‘There’s no link between money and happiness’

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Schneider-Press/John Farr/SIPA/Shutterstock (10559429bd) Liam Payne Laureus World Sports Awards, Berlin, Germany - 17 Feb 2020
Liam Payne admits to making some business mistakes (Picture: John Farr/SIPA/Shutterstock)

Liam Payne has revealed he was once the director of a £500million company at the tender age of 22, but admits money doesn’t buy happiness. 

The former One Direction star has opened up about his relationship with money in a new interview, recounting some of the mistakes he made financially and how he learned to make smart investments. 

As a member of the world’s one-time biggest boy band, Liam earned a pretty penny with 1D but he’s also invested outside of music. 

Recalling one of his earliest business ventures, the pop star said on The Diary of a CEO by Steve Bartlett: ‘I was a director of a half-a-billion pound industry at 22. But if I am trying to pay car insurance I am useless. Picking up my post? I am the worst person in the world. You are deluded in your growth.’ 

He added: ‘I still feel like a child in so many ways. There is no link between money and happiness. It is a myth. Money is the ability to relax on certain things.’ 

Liam, 28, later explained: ‘My business learning curve from the day I got my first check and I went to the manager and was like, “What do you invest your money in?” because he had the biggest garden in London.

‘I was like, here’s a good place to start. He had the biggest home garden. 

Hits Radio Live Manchester 2019 - Show
The singer has realised money doesn’t buy happiness (Picture: WireImage)

‘I started to branch out a little bit more and then I went into properties which is always the one I wanted to do. Then when I was 19, I nearly bought a fighting agency which was fun. I got brought in to buy BAMMA when I was 19.

‘I roll up to this thing in my Burberry coat thinking I’m an absolute bad man because I’m about to buy England’s UFC… 

‘I got in this company but unfortunately the deal wasn’t great and I put it through one of my investors that I know and he was like, people try to catch you out. This was always my biggest problem.’ 

Liam later joked that rap music was responsible for making him ‘spend a hell of a lot of money’. 

It was during the podcast chat that Liam revealed he has split from fiancee Maya Henry after two years of dating to work on himself.

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