Former One Direction band member Liam Payne, 31, passed away in Argentina on October 16, after falling from his hotel balcony. In the past, he had been vocal about his issues with sobriety, which began during his 1D years.
In an episode of Diary of a CEO podcast in September 2021, he revealed how Harry Styles, his former bandmate, would ring him up to check in on how he was doing.
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"I had a lovely phone call from Harry the other day. He was checking in on me,” Payne shared. “It’s almost as if some people have got a sixth sense about when you’re going through something and want to check in.”
According to TMZ, Liam Payne passed away at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel, where he fell from the third floor. The incident took place at about 5 p.m., and the singer was reportedly feeling temperamental in the lobby, where he broke his laptop and was consequently escorted back to his room.
According to the outlet, someone called 911 to report about an "aggressive" male.
Liam Payne said there was nothing to do but drink during his 1D days
Liam Payne joined One Direction at the age of 16, and the band was propelled to fame after their appearance on The X Factor in 2010. However, all of them- Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, and Payne- parted ways in 2015.
In speaking on the podcast, Payne said,
“I was worried how far my rock bottom was going to be. 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.”
Liam Payne referred to his alcoholism as "really, really, really severe. It was a problem," sharing that it was only after he saw pictures of himself looking “all bloated out” did he realize it was time to "make a change."
However, in speaking of how his issues began during his 1D days, he blamed it on their intense lifestyle.
"As a teen, the one thing you need is freedom to make choices and freedom to do stuff. We were always locked into a room at night. The problem was, in the band … the best way to secure us, because of how big we’d got, was just to lock us in our rooms. What’s in the room? A minibar. So 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.”
The Stack It Up singer revealed that the abuse went on for “many years,” when at one point, he stopped and realized how young he was to be doing that, thinking to himself,
"‘Jesus Christ, that’s a long time,’ even for someone who was as young as I was. It was wild, but it was the only way you could get the frustration out in the day.”
Watch the interview below:
The singer had celebrated being 100 days sober back in May 2023, Billboard reported. Per the outlet, he said,
“Things are really, really good. I’m sober now over 100 days. I feel amazing. I feel really, really good, and support from the fans and everything has been really, really good. So, I’m super happy.”
Harry Styles' mother, Anne Twist, took to Instagram to reflect on the talent's passing, as she posted a black image with a broken heart emoji over it. The caption read:
"Just a boy … 💔."
Her comments were flooded with fans' well-wishes. Several celebrities also took to the platform to offer their condolences and pay their tributes to Liam Payne's untimely demise, including Charlie Puth, 32, and Piers Morgan.
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