Former One Direction Star Liam Payne Dead At 31
Former One Direction star Liam Payne has died after falling from the third floor of his hotel room in Argentina, according to state police, as reported by Good Morning America. The English singer was 31.
TMZ reports that several witnesses at the Buenos Aires hotel, where Payne was staying, said he fell from his room on the 4th floor of the CasaSur Palermo Hotel. It is unclear whether the fall was intentional or accidental. Witnesses also mentioned that the incident occurred shortly after 5 PM local time, and that earlier, Payne had been acting erratically in the hotel lobby—at one point smashing his laptop and needing to be carried back to his room.
This is a developing story.
Payne had recently been in Argentina for a Niall Horan concert earlier in the month, where the two 1D bandmates reunited at the show. Before the concert, Payne was seen peering down at screaming fans from a box suite, theatrically leaning over to say hello while singing along to “Summer Nights” from Grease as it played over the speakers.
In another fan-captured moment, Payne danced to Los Del Río’s “Macarena” as concertgoers filmed him from below. Later, during Horan’s performance, Payne was spotted jamming along to the “Slow Hands” artist’s solo rendition of One Direction’s 2014 hit “Stockholm Syndrome.”
Born in Wolverhampton, England, Payne began his music career as a contestant on The X Factor in 2008, where he was eliminated. He returned in 2010 and was placed into a group alongside Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik. The group placed third and was signed to Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment. Payne was just 16 years old when he joined One Direction.
One Direction is considered one of the highest-selling boy bands of all time, with over 70 million records sold worldwide, according to Variety. After dominating the music scene from 2010 to 2016, the band announced an indefinite hiatus, with all five members pursuing solo careers.
In 2023, Payne posted an eight-minute video on YouTube, revealing that he was nearly six months sober after spending nearly 100 days in a rehab facility in Louisiana.
“I just kind of feel like I’ve got more of a grip on life and everything that was getting away from me, I just feel like I’ve got more of a handle on it,” Payne said. “I just needed to take a little bit of time out for myself actually because I kind of became somebody who I didn’t really recognize anymore. And I’m sure you guys didn’t either. I was in bad shape up until that point and I was really happy to kind of put a stopper to life and work.”
