Liam Payne, Former One Direction Member, Dead at 31
Directioners are saying goodbye to Liam Payne.
The former One Direction bandmate died after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, according to Good Morning America and CNN, citing police. He was 31.
Two hours before news broke, Payne shared a photo on Snapchat of himself with girlfriend Kate Cassidy in swim gear as they smiled for a mirror selfie.
Payne rose to fame in 2010 when he was grouped with Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik to form One Direction on The X Factor. While the band finished third place, they went on to see massive success starting with their debut single "What Makes You Beautiful" as part of their debut album Up All Night in 2011.
However, Payne was candid about the difficulties of becoming a celebrity so young in life.
"Fame made me a little bit nuts and distracted me a lot from the person I was," he told #Legend magazine in 2018. "And it pissed me off in the end, because it was like, 'You could have been this guy, but you chose to do this.' Nobody really knew anything about me. I put on a front that wasn't really me."
That's why the decision to officially disband the group in 2016—one year after Malik departed—was a welcome change.
"I remember the day we finished, because of the place I was in, I was quite happy that we had a break," Payne shared. "I said to the person with me at the time, 'Thank God I don't have to play that person again for a long time.' It was exhausting and I couldn't keep up with myself."
Payne—who shares 7-year-old son Bear Grey Payne with his ex Cheryl Cole—explained that being a part of the band also caused him to have suicidal ideation and problems with alcohol.
"I was worried how far my rock bottom was going to be," he said on The Diary of a CEO podcast in 2021. "Where's rock bottom for me? And you would never have seen it. I'm very good at hiding it. No one would ever have seen it."
The "Best Song Ever" artist came to rely on "pills and booze" while touring with the band.
"The problem was... the best way to secure us, because of how big it got, was to lock us in a room. And, of course, what is in the room? A minibar," he noted. "At a certain point, I just thought, 'Well, I'm going to have a party for one,' and that just seemed to carry on throughout many years of my life."
"It was really, really, really severe," he added of his mental health issues. "And it was a problem. And it was only until I saw myself after that, I was like 'Right, I need to fix myself.'"
He completed a 100-day stint in rehab in 2023 following a wake-up call.
"I just needed to take a little bit of time out for myself actually because I kind of became somebody who I didn't really recognize anymore," Payne said in a YouTube video in July of last year. "And I'm sure you guys didn't either."
Among those to offer their support were his former bandmates Styles, Malik, Tomlinson and Horan.
"The rest of the boys have really stuck by me," he noted. "When I needed them most they kind of came to my rescue, even Zayn as well."
But it was his son Bear who also greatly influenced his decision to get help.
"There is no point trying to be a dad," the musician added, "when you have nothing to teach."
In the video—posted not long before debuting his romance with former fan Kate Cassidy—Payne shared that he had a positive outlook on his future.
"I feel like I have a grip on life now and everything that was getting away from me," he noted. "After I got back out, that process had worked for me, but there were still some little bits left that I kind of had to deal with myself."
Read on for a look back at Payne's life in photos.
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