He said: “You know, there’s still a level in my head [where it feels] unjust and frustrating that he’s not with us anymore.

“So, it just brought up those feelings, although I’m still living with them anyway.”

Tomlinson also explained how Payne’s death hit him harder because he’d “never lost a friend”, despite dealing with grief in the past.

“It was really, really, impossibly difficult for me to deal with losing Liam.

“Naively, I thought that because at this point, I’m relatively well-versed in grief for my age, that it might soften the blow.

“[That was] super-naive. It’s very different. I’ve never lost a friend before.”

Tomlinson has also taken the time to dispel some misconceptions about his friend, insisting “anything that he got wrong in life” was “only through miscommunication” rather than “malice”.

“He was just a very misunderstood person, I think, from a public perspective,” he said.

“If there is ever any judgment on his character, I think nine times out of 10, you can reflect on that, and the reflection is that he was someone who just wanted to be liked.”