Former One Direction member Liam Payne, dead at 31

Buenos Aires police have confirmed British singer Liam Payne, former member of the group One Direction, died Wednesday aged 31 after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Argentina.

”Liam James Payne, composer and guitarist, former member of the band One Direction, died today after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Palermo,” the police statement said, reported AFP.

Local newspaper La Nacion reported on Wednesday that the 31-year-old British musician was found dead after falling from the hotel’s third floor, it said, citing emergency services.

AFP reports witnesses telling local media that Payne had fallen from his CasaSur Palmero Hotel room just after 5pm on Wednesday night.

Tributes have begun rolling in for the late pop star.

Representatives for his ex-fiancée Maya Henry told The Daily Mail she was “obviously in shock”.

Payne had been in the midst of a struggle with ex-partner Maya Henry. This week Metro reported he was facing legal action from the model, 23, who had “issued a cease and desist letter” and claimed he had been “ceaselessly contacting her, using different iCloud accounts to continue to reach out”.

The couple broke up in 2022. The pair went public with their relationship in 2019, with Payne proposing in 2020, before they split for the first time in 2021, with Payne saying he had “not been very good at relationships”.

Photo / Getty

In 2023 Payne was rushed to hospital with severe kidney pain while visiting Lake Como in Italy. The incident came after he’d been forced to cancel the South American leg of his tour due to a “serious kidney infection”, which previously saw him hospitalised.

Payne shares a son with ex-partner Cheryl Cole, Bear Grey, born in 2017. The following year Cole confirmed their two-and-a-half year relationship had ended.

“We still have so much love for each other as a family,” she announced on Twitter. “Bear is our world and we ask that you respect his privacy as we navigate our way through this together.”

Cole, a UK singer and actress, first met Payne on The X Factor when he was 14 and she was 24.

Photo / Getty

Most recently the pop star had been linked to influencer Kate Cassidy, with the couple attending Paris Fashion Week together in March, 2024.

Payne rose to international stardom as one-fifth of the English-Irish boy band One Direction, who formed and placed third on the seventh series of The X Factor in 2010.

One Direction soon became teen idols, often sparking widespread hysteria among fans. The group is one of the best-selling boy groups of all time.

Born in Wolverhampton, England, in 1993, he was just 14 when he first auditioned for The X Factor in 2008, moving past the first round after performing Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me to the Moon. Payne was first eliminated at the Boot Camp, until host Simon Cowell - who would later sign One Direction to his record label - changed his mind and asked Payne to return. He was eliminated again at the judge’s houses, but was encouraged by Cowell to come back “in two years” - which he did.

He auditioned again in 2010 and was put into the group with Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles. They went on to release five studio albums: Up All Night (2011), Take Me Home (2012), Midnight Memories (2013), Four (2014), and Made in the A.M. (2015).

In 2016 One Direction announced they were breaking up; Zayn Malik had left the band in 2015.

Photo / Getty

After the band’s dissolution, Payne embarked on a solo career - releasing the hit single Strip that Down in 2017 and his debut album LP1 in December 2019.

In 2023 Payne admitted he was in “bad shape” the previous year, revealing he’d spent 100 days at a Louisiana-based wellness clinic after struggling with the break up of One Direction seven years ago.

He had been open about his mental health, and had found solace in art and poetry.

Taking to YouTube he apologised for his past behaviour actions and revealed that his One Direction bandmates had supported him during difficult periods. “The rest of the boys have really stuck by me and when I needed them most they kind of came to my rescue, even Zayn.”

Payne also discussed his journey to sobriety in the video, “There is a point when you hit rock bottom and you realise you have got to do something different as whatever you are doing right now isn’t working for you,” he said. “There is no point trying to be a dad when you have nothing to teach.”

Last year fans began speculating that a One Direction reunion was on the cards after Payne told The Sun On Sunday they had “started a new group chat”, with Horan and Tomlinson also helping Payne record his album in LA.

Investigations into Payne’s death are understood to be ongoing.

• Read more here

This article was first published by the NZ Herald and is republished here with permission.