Harry Styles, Niall Horan react to Liam Payne’s ‘heartbreaking’ death
Singer may have been in 'a state of unconsciousness' before deadly fall
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Harry Styles and Niall Horan are the last members of One Direction to issue public tributes to their bandmate Liam Payne, who died Wednesday at the age of 31 after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
“I am truly devastated by Liam’s passing,” Styles, 30, wrote in an Instagram message late Thursday. “His greatest joy was making other people happy, and it was an honour to be alongside him as he did it.”
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Styles added, “Liam lived wide open, with his heart on his sleeve, he had an energy for life that was infectious. He was warm, supportive, and incredibly loving. The years we spent together will forever remain among the most cherished years of my life. I will miss him always, my lovely friend.”
In his own post that accompanied a throwback pic of the pair, Horan, 31, said he was “absolutely devastated.”
“It just doesn’t feel real. Liam had an energy for life and a passion for work that was infectious. He was the brightest in every room and always made everyone feel happy and secure,” Horan wrote.
The two met earlier this month when Horan was playing a show in Buenos Aires. “I feel so fortunate that I got to see him recently,” Horan added. “I sadly didn’t know that after saying goodbye and hugging him that evening, I would be saying goodbye forever. It’s heartbreaking. My love and condolences go out to Geoff, Karen, Ruth, Nicola and of course his son Bear.”
In separate tributes, Payne’s other bandmates, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik spoke of their own heartbreak over Payne’s sudden death.
Tomlinson, 32, said that Payne was “somebody I looked up to everyday” and wrote that he was “beyond lucky to have had you in my life.”
Malik, 31, shared his own statement to his Instagram, writing: “Liam, I have found myself talking out loud to you, hoping you can hear me, I can’t help but think selfishly that there was so many more conversations for us to have in our lives. I never got to thank you for supporting me through some of the most difficult times in my life.”
In a joint statement, One Direction said they were “completely devastated.”
“The memories we shared with him will be treasured forever,” the band said in a statement signed by all four members. “We will miss him terribly.”
The band didn’t address the circumstances surrounding Payne’s death, simply adding, “In time, and when everyone is able to, there will be more to say.”
Newly released audio detailed a frantic scene in the moments leading up to Payne’s deadly plunge from the third floor of a hotel in Argentina, a country he had been visiting for the past few weeks with his girlfriend, social media influencer Kate Cassidy, who had returned to the U.S. just two days before his death.
The UK Sun, The Associated Press and Argentinian outlet La Nacion translated an emergency call made by the manager of the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires in which the person could be heard saying a guest was “overwhelmed with drugs and alcohol” and “putting his life at risk.”
“We have a guest who is (allegedly) high and drunk; and when he is conscious, he is destroying his room and we need you to send someone, please. We need you to send someone urgently because I don’t know if his life is in danger,” the hotel manager said.
“They must be in a room that has a balcony. And well, we’re a little bit worried he’ll do something, that he’ll put his life at risk,” he said.
Despite looking fine in a series of videos shared to his Snapchat on Wednesday, several witnesses told TMZ that in the leadup to the call the father of one had been “acting erratic” in the hotel lobby earlier in the afternoon.
Payne reportedly “smashed his laptop, and had to be carried back to his room.”
By the time medical personnel arrived, Payne’s body was on the ground outside the hotel with La Nacion reporting that “a bottle of whiskey, a lighter and a cellphone” were also found at the scene.
Pablo Policicchio, the communications director for the Buenos Aires Security Ministry, said in a statement to The Associated Press that Payne “had jumped from the balcony of his room.”
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Unverified photos taken of his alleged hotel room showed a chaotic scene with a smashed television and discarded foil and a white powder, which police will test to see if it is cocaine, La Nacion reported.
Statements from the Buenos Aires police echoed the images that appeared on X as they told the Associated Press that they found Payne’s room “in complete disarray” with broken objects and furniture. They found packs of clonazepam, a central nervous system depressant, energy supplements and over-the-counter medications strewn about his belongings. The Argentine public prosecutor said there also appeared to be alcohol and narcotics in the room.
According to the AP, an autopsy showed internal bleeding and 25 traumatic injuries to his skull, limbs and abdomen, consistent with a fall. It said those injuries alone were enough to cause his death.
“Based on what the team saw, there was apparently a cranial fracture and extremely serious injuries that led to his immediate death,” one medic said, according to La Nacion (per the New York Post).
Payne may have fallen into a fallen into “a state of unconsciousness,” the AP reported, and may have been “going through some kind of substance abuse episode.”
As police aim to pull together a timeline of Payne’s final hours, they interviewed two women who were with the singer earlier in the day.
Meanwhile, a source told PEOPLE that Payne “was extremely overwhelmed by all of the legal issues … related to his ex-fiancee, Maya Henry.”
According to the Daily Mail, Payne was hit with a cease-and-desist order last week after he repeatedly tried to contact Henry.
In past interviews, Payne was open about his struggle with substance abuse and the pressures of fame.
“I was worried how far my rock bottom was going to be. Where’s rock bottom for me?” he said in an interview with Stephen Bartlett on The Diary Of The CEO podcast in 2021.
— With files from the Associated Press
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