ONE DIRECTION-ONE AND ONLY

LIAM

Liam James Payne gave his parents, Karen and Geoff, quite a scare when he was born in three weeks early on 29 August 1993 and needed resusciation.

As a result, one of his kidneys was scared and disfunctional. As a child, he endured 32 injections im his arm every morning and evening to cope with the pain. Now one kidney does not work and he has to be careful not to drink too much - even water - and to stay healthy.

At school, Liam was something of an entreprenuer, buying boxes of sweets and selling them for a profit, making himself around £50 a week.

Although a sporty kid, he was bullied at school and took up boxing to learn how to fight back. 'I needed to find a way to defend myself.' he explains. 'I was, at 12 years old, fighting a 38 years old trainer. I broke my nose, had a perforated ear drum and I was always coming home with a bruised, puffy face, but it gives me confidence. I got pretty good over the next couple of the years.'

MUSICAL BEGINNINGS

As a child, Liam was always singing karaoke and joined the school choir when he was nine. He even won a solo, aged 13, when his choir joined with other schools to set a new world record for the number of people singing in unison. His mother Karen would juggle shifts as a nursery nurse to accompany him on all his auditions and was by his side the first time he auditioned for The X Factor at the age of 14, wearing a pair of borrowed jeans (Armani, from his sister's boyfriend) and shoes with a hole in them (just old) He later explained: 'I didn't really have much of an interest in fashion generally, so when my first X Factor audition came around I had absolutely nothing nice to wear.'

Liam waited nine hours and eventually made it through the Judges' Houses, but Simon told him that he was not ready for the competition and asked him to come back ine two years.

When he was 16, by then studying music technology at City Of Wolverhampton College, Liam decided to give the show another try. 'I was the only one of the lads who really had to think about wether or not it was a good idea to become a band. I'd been working as a solo artist for so long that I couldn't imagine for doing that, but as soon as I made the decision to go for it, I knew I had done the right thing,' he explained.

THE GIRLS

'My mates used to wind me up and pretend that girls liked me when they didn't, so I'd ask them out and they'd say no, which was mortifying.'

- Liam Payne

Although he landed his first girlfriend at the age of five, Liam did not always have such success with the ladies. A few years later, he asked the same girl out 22 times and she only agreed to go on a date after he sang to her!

His audition song, 'Cry Me A River', was aimed at the girl who cheated on him.

When Liam started out in the show, he was dating his childhood sweetheart, Shannon Murphy, but their relationship fizzled out due to the time spent apart while on The X Factor. 'We had to be apart for months on end so ot put a lot of pressure on the relationship and we finally split up,' he admits. He dated Danielle Pazer, a backing dancer for The Saturdays and Jessi J, for two years, after meeting her on the show in 2010.

Danielle resisted Liam's charms at first because she felt he was too young for her, bit eventually he conviced her to let him take her on a date. She was a good influence on him, encouraging him to clean up his act after they started sharing a flat. They even got themeselves a dog, Loki, but eventually agreed to go their seperate ways in 2013, saying that their hectic schedules did not leave them enough time for a proper relationship, but they remain the best of friends.

THE SENSIBLE ONE

While the other boys of the group tend to party pretty hard after coming off a stage on a high, Liam admits that he prefers time to himself: 'I'm fairly quiet person so I used to go to my room to be by myself. I've got a lot I want to achieve so drinking doesn't interest me.' Because of his kidney problems, Liam watches his diet carefully, particularly the amount of salt and protein he consumes, and prefers to unwind by working out in the gym.

As a result, he has impressive six-pack abs to show for it and is happy to be known as 'dad' of the group.

'I think even when I'm old enough to drink, I won't. My plan is to learn to drive so I can ferry the other lads around and act as security when we go out.'

- Liam Payne