Perrie Edwards has spoken out following the death of Liam Payne.
The Little Mix star has spoken out about the importance of protecting artists weeks after the One Direction singer died on 16 October when he fell from the third floor of his hotel suite in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was 31.
“I think it’s really important to look at people as humans and think why did they get to this place? Why are they struggling so much?” Perrie said during a recent appearance on The Happy Place podcast with Ferne Cotton.
The Forget About Us singer, 31, noted that celebrities are often “put on a pedestal” and fans forget that they can be severely affected by negative comments online.
“I don’t think there’s enough consequences for people online. I don’t think people in this industry are looked after enough,” she insisted. “They’re put on pedestal, they get brought up and they’re like this god or amazing person and then everybody jumps on this bandwagon of like: ‘Yeah! Let’s tear them down’ and it’s like a fun thing to do.”
Perrie continued, “But it’s not fun. These people are human. What do we do to change it? Can we make rules with social media?”
The hitmaker – who, like Liam, shot to fame on British TV show The X Factor as a teenager – added that online trolling can be “so savage” and insisted there is a difference between free speech and “bullying”.
Perrie dated Liam’s former bandmate Zayn Malik between 2011 and 2015.
Shortly after the Strip That Down singer’s death, a preliminary toxicology report revealed that he had “multiple substances” in his system when he died.
