Good Morning Britain viewers were left baffled when they tuned into the show and heard Liam Payne chatting from the Oscars.
The former One Direction singer was chatting to the ITV news programme's North America correspondent Noel Phillips, who was live on the red carpet of Elton John's Oscars party. He was asked about the incident between Will Smith and Chris Rock which has overshadowed the 94th Acadamy Awards and has been hitting the headlines.
The Oscars were thrown into chaos after Smith stormed the stage and hit Rock in the face. The comedian had made a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, just minutes before Smith was named best actor at the star-studded ceremony.
Smith, who won his first Academy Award for King Richard, appeared to take offence to a gag Rock made about Pinkett Smith’s short haircut. The Magic Mike XXL star and Red Table Talk host has previously spoken about her struggles with alopecia and said it is what prompted her to shave her head.
Referring to Pinkett Smith’s buzzcut, Rock said: "Jada, can’t wait for GI Jane 2", prompting the actress to roll her eyes. However, Smith walked up on stage and appeared to hit Rock before returning to his seat and shouting twice: "Keep my wife’s name out of your f****** mouth."
Appearing on Monday morning's GMB, Liam Payne was asked about his thoughts on the incident. "I'll be honest with you... Will Smith actually used to live behind my house," he said. "I've had the pleasure of knowing his son and daughter very well and we did Men In Black III with him.
"I believe whatever he felt that he did he had the right to do and I also felt there were three losers in one fight. He didn't know, being Chris Rock, He didn't do what he had to do, being Will Smith, and she did nothing, being Jada, and it's a very sad thing."
The pop star went on: "But there was a powerful moment for me to watch one of the world's best emoters, ever, speak from the heart. I'd rather take the beauty out the situation than take the pain. But I had to leave my chair, I'll be honest with you.
"It cut me really deep. I don't get deep about these things. I'm a big movie fan, I'll be honest with you and out of a horrible moment there was a little bit of beauty in what came on and I'm sure everyone's very apologetic about what happened.
"It shouldn't have happened. But ask yourself what would you do in that situation. I don't know how we'd all react. We're all very human, right?"
When he was introduced onto the programme as they abruptly cut to their conversation, Noel thanked him for his reaction before pressing further on his thoughts.
"I can't speak too hard on this because I met Chris when I was younger when we sold out Maddison Square Gardens and it was a very illusional time for me. I sat with him for 20, 30 minutes and he was lovely. I also know Will Smith. My manager's worked with Will Smith in the past, from the ground upwards."
After returning to the studio, fellow presenter Ranvir Singh commented on Liam's 'interesting' comments.
"I thought what Liam said was really interesting. He's a young lad who cries when Will Smith cries, he's watched every film... there are boys who watch that... " Ranvir said as Susanna commented: "This is my point about role modelling..."
Ranvir then continued: "But I think it's really interesting what he just said. I just looked at the time and it's 18 minutes past seven, and hour ago I was like 'oh well' but now my son's woken up and about to go school I'm thinking, 'I hope he doesn't see that'. Isn't that interesting?"
She then added of her nine-year-old son, who is into MMA: "I'd tell my son, 'listen, you've to control your emotions. If someone tells a joke you walk away and tell someone.' It's crazy now to think that he would think that's ok."
But GMB viewers were distracted by Liam's major change - to his accent.
@lynsey_mcgee tweeted: "Excuse me, what the hell is up with Liam Payne’s accent?? #Oscars #GMB."
"Why is he Irish, Northern and American???" @M4DELA1NE said.
@wearefreeradio commented: "Ermmm @LiamPayne, thought you were from #Wolverhampton??? What’s happened?!"
"Liam Payne’s new accent has me more shocked than the Will Smith incident tbh #gmb," @conormckenna101 wrote.
@ChrisWall1000 shared: "Ok still trying to process Will Smith’s slap and Liam paynes accent, Monday hang on a minute #gmb #WillSmith."
"Lol, what is this new accent all about? So much chaos going on, I can't," @thereal__isabel added.
