‘Covered up’: Liam Payne’s comment to girlfriend reveals bizarre reality

Liam Payne is going viral for praising his girlfriend for “covering up” but there’s a detail we can’t ignore.

COMMENT

Liam Payne, best known for being one-fifth of One Direction, is going viral for praising his girlfriend for “covering up” and the response has revealed a lot about how many of us still view romance.

To catch you up, if you’ve missed this saga.

Payne, 30, is dating influencer Kate Cassidy and, in typical influencer fashion, she’s swamped making TikToks and documenting her daily life.

The 25-year-old posted a video that Payne also participated in, in which they showed off their outfits before heading out to dinner.

Harmless enough and he obviously understands his role as an influencer’s boyfriend is to embrace making content with vigour.

Unfortunately, Payne made the grave mistake of not just standing in the background like a boyfriend at a retail store, but also speaking.

“You look good. Nice and covered up for once,” he remarked.

This was the clip that went very viral. Picture: Instagram/kateecass

Kate Cassidy has over 70,000 Instagram followers. Picture: Instagram/kateecass

The delivery was deadpan and, in 2024, complimenting your girlfriend on dressing modestly just isn’t normal.

It immediately went viral.

Some fans enjoyed seeing Payne in his TikTok era, others claimed the comment was “misogynistic”, and some thought there was nothing wrong with a man complimenting his girlfriend for dressing more demurely.

The couple are very public on social media. Picture: Backgrid

You’ll notice Payne doesn’t cover up much. Picture: Instagram/kateecass

Of course, Cassidy addressed the backlash by filming another TikTok while she was snacking at the airport.

The 25-year-old was lunching with Payne when she explained that she’d seen the backlash online but she’d actually told her boyfriend to say that in the video.

“Why?”, you might ask. Well, she didn’t really give an explanation. She just said she told him to say it and then talked about the way she normally dresses.

“If you look at my Instagram, I don’t normally cover up to much. Honestly, I’m 25. I wear what I want and he doesn’t care at all about what I wear,” she said.

She then giggled about reading a comment claiming Payne can’t tell someone to cover up because he has a song called‘Strip That Down’.

Then, Payne chimed in and said it’s not referring to a person stripping but stripping music down. He then threatened to get Ed Sheeran, the writer of the song, on the blower to clarify things.

At this point, it is hard to really know if Payne made the “covered up” comment because he was instructed too, or if it was his own addition.

Maybe the couple were savvy and thought the comment would go viral and, even if there was backlash, they’d be talked about.

Liam is most famous for being in One Direction. Picture: Instagram/LiamPayne

Cassidy said she told him to say it. Picture: Instagram/kateecass

Payne’s comment, whether he came up with it on his own or it was a line he was fed, speaks to a bizarre romance culture we don’t talk about enough.

You know, the one: “He loves me so much, he tells me what to wear.”

The most revealing thing about the singer’s comment was how many people didn’t care.

Sure, there were people on either side of the comment section battling it out, but there were also fans commenting “cute couple” and “my favourite couple”.

Payne’s comment didn’t alarm or disarm them. No, they just thought it was sweet, which is perhaps the more concerning part.

In 2024, do people still think a man praising his girlfriend for “covering up” is a good thing? The answer is yes, plenty still do, or at the very least aren’t bothered by it.

Psychologist Carly Dober said these kind of comments are “unhelpful” in relationships because they push forward an unhealthy norm.

“Persistent tropes and unhelpful romantic social scripts still exist about men showing ownership and jealousy equalling love and commitment,” she told news.com.au.

Ms Dober stressed that preferences are normal, but we need to consider where this idea of modesty or covering up comes from.

“Modesty is seen as a patriarchal and traditional value, and while its fine for people to have these preferences,” she said.

“It isn’t fine to pressure someone or make them feel bad if they don’t act in alignment with your values and how you believe they should be expressed.”

Originally published as ‘Covered up’: Liam Payne’s comment to girlfriend reveals bizarre reality