'Treat women with a bit more respect': Liam Payne blasts 'demeaning' tabloid report linking him to female member of his staff

There’s been extra interest in Liam Payne’s dating life since his split with Cheryl Cole — to the point where tabloids keep linking him to women who work for him — and he’s had enough.

The British singer, who rose to fame with One Direction, hit back at a tabloid report that claimed he stepped out with a “mystery girl.” There’s no mystery, he says. She is one of the “talented, smart professional women” on his staff. And he’s fed up that the women “are reduced to being linked to me romantically in the press just for simply standing next to me,” adding, “Isn’t it time we treat women with a bit more respect?”

Payne posted two tweets about the tabloid report from the Daily Mail, which featured photos of him and a woman outside Rosewood Hotel in London on Thursday. He noted that he’s been romantically linked to “every female member of my staff” and that “it’s demeaning.” It also poses problems for his employees, many of whom “are in relationships.” It also “complicates” their “work environment.” He ended his tweet writing: “I think it stops here.”

Payne’s posts have received more than 230,000 likes and 65,000 retweets. The comments are mostly supportive, as people point out that the whole “isn’t it time we treat women with a bit more respect” comment extends even beyond the topic of tabloids.

Payne and Cole, who share a 1-year-old son, Bear, announced their split in July — a few weeks after they really broke up — and said “it’s breaking up twice.” He said: “We already did this once and now I’m having to go through all of that again just because [it plays out in the press].” In that same interview, he reminded his fans that there are real people beyond those celebrity breakup statements. “There are actually people who are going through the same sort of stuff that you go through whether they’re famous, rich or whatever they are,” he said. Payne, 25, also admitted that there’s “a lot of stuff I’ve still got to sort out with my life” right now, and said he’s been “a bit fragile at times” since the split.

Payne’s video for his song “Polaroid,” featuring Jonas Blue and Lennon Stella, was released Friday. In a recent interview with the Daily Star, Blue said that the track was originally intended to feature Payne with Cole before their split.

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