Liam Payne was once pop royalty as a member of One Direction, but his difficult life and untimely death proved a tragic truth: fame isn't all it's cracked up to be.
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00:00Liam Payne was once pop royalty as a member of One Direction, but his difficult life and
00:05untimely death proved a tragic truth. Fame isn't all it's cracked up to be.
00:10On October 16, 2024, Payne died after falling from the third-floor balcony of the Casa Sur
00:15Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires. Alberto Crescenti, who leads the Argentinian emergency services
00:21program, told the press that first responders had tried and failed to resuscitate Payne
00:26on the scene, describing his injuries as, quote, incompatible with life.
00:30I can't explain how I feel right now. I'm shaking.
00:33According to some reports, the hotel staff had been concerned about Payne in the moments
00:36leading up to the accident. One receptionist even went so far as to place two separate
00:41phone calls to the local emergency services. According to transcripts of the second call,
00:45which have been published by the BBC, the receptionist told the emergency dispatcher,
00:50We've got a guest who has had too many drugs and alcohol, and, well, when he is conscious,
00:54he is trashing the entire room, and we need you to send someone, please.
00:58Soon after, the same staff member voiced their concern that the guest's room had a balcony.
01:02The emergency dispatcher reassured the receptionist that a team of first responders was on the
01:07way, but Payne was dead by the time help arrived.
01:10During One Direction's heyday, Liam Payne and his bandmates were on top of the world.
01:15They embarked on sold-out tours every year and had multiple platinum albums. From the
01:19outside, it seemed as though they were living the dream. Privately, however, Payne was masking
01:24his unhappiness. In 2017, he told The Sun,
01:27Going out and putting that happy smile on my face and singing the songs, honestly, sometimes
01:31it was like putting on one of those costumes. Going out there and underneath the costume,
01:36people don't really see what's going on.
01:38Eventually, the stresses of touring led to Payne having thoughts of self-harm.
01:41There's some stuff that I've definitely, like, never, never spoken about to do with it that
01:45was really, really, really severe.
01:48Payne once compared fame to suffering a midlife crisis, and often spoke about how it led him
01:52down a dark and frightening path.
01:54It'd be so often, you know, like, when will this end? You know, and then, like, that's
01:59almost nearly killed me a couple of times.
02:02During an appearance on The Diary of a CEO podcast, Payne revealed that he developed
02:06an unhealthy relationship with pills and alcohol on tour. When they were on the road, the four
02:11members of One Direction would be contained in their rooms to keep them safe from fans
02:15and onlookers, essentially locking them in a room with a minibar.
02:19So at a certain point, I thought, well, I'm going to have a party for one. And that just
02:21seemed to carry on throughout many years of my life.
02:24The contrast between the euphoria of performance and those lonely nights spent in hotel rooms
02:29proved difficult for the singer to manage on his own. He began taking an epilepsy drug
02:34to even out his mood. Later, Payne told The Guardian,
02:36I just needed a little bit of help to keep me stable, but under certain lights on stage
02:40or during interviews, I wouldn't be able to tell them my name. And things only got worse
02:44when One Direction itself disbanded.
02:48The announcement of One Direction's hiatus in 2015 devastated fans around the world.
02:52After Zayn Malik's sudden departure just months prior, it seems many weren't ready to say
02:56goodbye to the rest of the band just yet. But Payne was more than ready to bid farewell,
03:01to him taking that hiatus was a matter of life and death. Since forming in 2010, he
03:05and his bandmates had gone on four exhausting, headlining world tours, and recorded five
03:10hit albums together. The key to success was their nonstop work schedule, even if it was
03:15to their personal detriment. Payne was often candid about the fact that he and the rest
03:19of the group were brutally overworked. And who could blame him for suffering? The band's
03:23overnight success turned Payne from a regular teenager to a member of a money-making machine
03:28that set his future in stone, and that lack of control had a serious impact on his well-being.
03:33In 2019, he told Men's Health Australia,
03:36I still struggle with it now.
03:38When One Direction started their hiatus, Payne found that he was able to do something
03:42he hadn't done for a long time — take a break. The singer took six months off, during
03:47which he began seeing a therapist. During therapy, Payne discovered that he had lost
03:51so much of his true self in the band. In his GQ interview, he said,
03:54I mean, even in my therapy sessions, my therapist asked me, what do you actually like to do?
03:59And I'm like, I don't know what I like doing.
04:01I was almost just as afraid of the success as I was the failure.
04:04For so long, Payne's life had been dictated by a manager who crafted his schedule, chose
04:09their songs, and essentially controlled his life. Figuring out what to do after all that
04:13terrified him. He admitted that he went, in his words, off the rails after leaving the
04:17band, soon becoming severely depressed without quite knowing why. He told GQ,
04:22It was just such a strange course through life, and then when the switch turns off,
04:26you're left to your own devices.
04:29Payne's therapy sessions may have helped him cope with the listlessness of life after One
04:33Direction, but the singer's troubles weren't over. In a 2019 interview with Esquire Middle
04:38East, Payne revealed that he was living with agoraphobia, an anxiety disorder that sometimes
04:43made him incapable of stepping out the door. This anxiety was triggered by the fact that
04:47fans and the media were watching his every move. He explained,
04:51I developed a bit of agoraphobia. I would never leave the house, and I do sometimes
04:55suffer with it a bit in the sense that I'll get days where I just don't want to leave
04:58my house.
04:59Payne described feeling a sense of panic while running common errands, like shopping or picking
05:04up a Starbucks order. He added,
05:06I can feel it now. It was like this horrible anxiety where I'd be sweating buckets in the
05:10car thinking, I don't want to do this.
05:12In 2021, The Sun reported that Payne's management agency, Kin, had decided to jump ship. An
05:18anonymous source told the outlet that the management firm had made the decision to drop
05:21him due to his concerning lifestyle. They felt that the singer was out of control with
05:25his heavy partying and wasn't taking his solo career seriously. The source said,
05:30There are concerns right now for Liam because he isn't committed to anything and is spiraling
05:34a bit. His management were at the end of their tether and said a mouth is enough.
05:38The source also alleged that Payne had found Harry Styles' fruitful solo career a tough
05:42pill to swallow.
05:44While Styles gained critical and commercial acclaim with his post-One Direction releases,
05:48Payne's 2019 debut album, LP1, was met with disappointing sales. Unfortunately, it seems
05:53Payne's solo career wasn't panning out to be as successful as he might have hoped, especially
05:58considering the promising start suggested by his debut single, Strip That Down.
06:03Clearly, Payne never found fame easy, but towards the end of his life, it seemed that
06:07things were really getting better. He fell in love with content creator Kate Cassidy,
06:11for one thing, and the two were often spotted together at film premieres and red carpet
06:15events. Payne's friends also seemed pleased with this progress. As one of the musician's
06:19closest companions told The Sun,
06:21For a while, things seemed to be looking up for him, but things soon began to spiral out
06:26of control.
06:27On October 7, 2024, the media reported that Payne's friends were worried about him. The
06:31insider who spoke to The Sun claimed,
06:33"[Liam's behavior has been concerning many in his inner circle for months.] The issue?
06:38Payne appeared to be abandoning old friendships and jumping too quickly into new ones."
06:42The source added,
06:43He's no longer around some of his old friends as he's relocated to America to start a new
06:47life out there, which means many of those who are around him are yes-men. And it seems
06:52that this individual was not the person who was concerned about Payne.
06:55A separate source told Page Six,
06:57Liam had been cycling through periods of ruinous behavior for a long time. All in all, it appears
07:02that 2024 was not an easy year for Payne. And while we may never know what led him to
07:07finally fall from that balcony in Buenos Aires, his death no doubt marked a tragic end to
07:12a difficult life.
07:14If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text
07:18988 or chat 988lifeline.org.