Liam Payne Dead at 31 After Falling Off Hotel Balcony
Singer Liam Payne is dead at the age of 31 after falling off a fourth-floor balcony at the CasaSur Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, TMZ reported on Wednesday, October 15. State Police later confirmed his death.
It’s unclear whether the fall was accidental or intentional, according to the outlet. The site obtained photos of what they claimed was Liam’s body on a wooden deck, showing photos of his forearm that included a clock tattoo, as well as a scorpion on his lower left abdomen.
The outlet said the tragedy happened around 5 p.m. local time and that Liam had been acting “erratic” earlier in the hotel lobby, where he allegedly smashed his laptop and needed to be carried back to his room.
JP reported that capital police said they were called to the hotel where they were notified of an “aggressive man who could be under the effects of drugs and alcohol.”
Liam had been posting on Snapchat hours before his death. In one post, he posed in jeans and a baseball cap while sitting with his hands on his knees, writing, “Halloween costume idea: Forrest Gump.”
The “Strip That Down” singer also shared a selfie taken by girlfriend Kate Cassidy showing her in a black bikini while he was smiling and shirtless. Liam’s scorpion tattoo was visible in the photo, identical to the one TMZ posted of his body.
Liam had a reunion with fellow One Direction member Niall Horan at the “Slow Hands” singer’s Buenos Aires tour stop on October 2 at Movistar Arena. Liam said in an October 1 Snapchat post that was shared on X that he and Kate, 25, were going to Buenos Aires “because we want to” and “because Niall Horan is playing down there. And I think we might just go and say ‘hello.’”
“It’s been a while since me and Niall have spoken. We’ve got a lot to talk about, and I would like to square up a couple of things with the boy,” Liam continued. “No bad vibes or anything like that, just we need to talk.”
Liam opened up about his struggles with drugs and alcohol as well as “suicidal ideation” during a June 2021 episode of “The Diary of a CEO With Steve Bartlett” podcast.
“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 mini-bar,” he recalled. “So at a certain point I thought, I’m just going to have a party-for-one and that seemed to carry on for many years of my life … It was wild but it was the only way you could get the frustration out.”
“I was worried how far my rock bottom was going to be. Where’s rock bottom for me?” the singer continued. “And you would never have seen it. I’m very good at hiding it. No one would ever have seen it.”
Liam became a member of One Direction after trying out for Britain’s The X Factor in 2010. Judge Simon Cowell put him together with fellow contestants Niall, 31, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson to form the boy band. While they didn’t win the competition, One Direction rocketed to stardom with their first single, “What Makes You Beautiful.”
The band was together for five years, touring relentlessly and becoming the world’s biggest boy band. Zayn left the group in March 2015, and One Direction would go on to play their final performance on December 13, 2015, during the live finale of The X Factor UK.
Unlike Harry, 30, and Niall, Liam never found the solo success of his bandmates. He became a father in March 2017 when then-girlfriend Cheryl gave birth to their son, Bear.