Liam Payne death latest: Preliminary autopsy reveals One Direction star died of multiple traumas caused by hotel fall

Singer has died aged 31 after falling from the third-floor balcony of a hotel in Buenos Aires

One Direction singer Liam Payne dies aged 31

One Direction star Liam Payne has died suddenly aged 31, after falling from a hotel balcony in the Palermo neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Local authorities have said they will conduct an autopsy and investigate the circumstances surrounding the singer’s death.

Payne’s family said in a statement issued by his spokeswoman: “We are heartbroken. Liam will forever live in our hearts and we’ll remember him for his kind, funny and brave soul.

”We are supporting each other the best we can as a family and ask for privacy and space at this awful time.”

Simon Cowell has responded to the news, while stars including Liam Gallagher, X Factor host Dermot O’Leary and Harry Style’s mother Anne Twist are among those to have paid tribute.

Payne rose to fame while competing on season five of The X Factor in 2010, when he was placed in the band One Direction along with Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik.

They went on to become one of the world’s most successful boybands, selling 70 million records and performing in stadiums around the world.

Liam Payne death: What we know so far

• BREAKING: Buenos Aires police share results of Liam Payne hotel room search
• Liam Payne’s cause of death has been revealed in a preliminary autopsy
• The letter Liam Payne wrote to his 10-year-old self
• In full: Transcript of hotel’s call to police before Liam Payne death
• What we know so far about Liam Payne’s shocking death at a Buenos Aires hotel

[17 October 2024 11:31 · Roisin O'Connor]

Backstreet Boys pay tribute to Liam Payne

“Words can not express the emotions we are collectively feeling right now, and it seems like the rest of the world is in the same boat,” a statement from the official Backstreet Boys account on X/Twitter said.

“Our hearts go out to Liam’s family, friends, and Directioners around the world. Rest in peace brother.”

Words can not express the emotions we are collectively feeling right now, and it seems like the rest of the world is in the same boat.

Our hearts go out to Liam’s family, friends, and Directioners around the world.

Rest in peace brother.

— Backstreet Boys (@backstreetboys) October 17, 2024

[17 October 2024 10:01 · Roisin O'Connor]

How Liam Payne felt about One Direction fame

Liam Payne referred to the time he spent in One Direction as “like uni”, but would later open up about his experiences of burnout and claustrophobia: “Cabin fever,” he told The Telegraph. “It sent me a bit AWOL at one point, if I’m honest. I can remember when there were 10,000 people outside our hotel. We couldn’t go anywhere. It was just gig to hotel, gig to hotel. And you couldn’t sleep, because they’d still be outside.”

He said his exasperation with fame came to a head in New York in 2012 when he was walking to a restaurant with his parents, and a photographer accidentally pushed his mum down. “I was like, ‘Oh, f*** this. F*** this s***,’” he recalled. “There was a swarm of them and I just wanted a burger with my parents. I cried my eyes out. I thought, ‘I can’t do this,’ and really hated my life.”

Malik announced in 2015 that he was leaving the band; One Direction went on an indefinite hiatus just months later. “It was a little bit dark and twisted towards the end of it,” Payne told The Guardian of the band’s split. “But the last few shows were really beautiful moments because the pressure cooker had been let off.

“It was almost like counting down to holiday... we were going to wake up that Monday morning with no schedule.” Payne was in therapy for two years after 1D split: “It was difficult at the start, because I didn’t really know anything about myself. It was a bit of a numb feeling.”

He spoke often about his struggles with alcoholism. In June 2022, he appeared in a controversial podcast interview with social media influencer Logan Paul, where he made a number of outlandish claims about One Direction and his former bandmates. Following a backlash, Payne apologised and later announced that he had checked into rehab.

“A lot of what I said came from the wrong place,” he said in a video shared to his YouTube channel. “I was so angry at what was going on around me and instead of taking a look inwards I decided to look outwards at everybody else, and I just think, yeah, I took it out on everybody else, which is just wrong, really.”

Despite regretting his remarks, he said the podcast interview helped him get “more of a grip on life and everything that was getting away from me”. He celebrated 100 days of sobriety in May 2023.

[17 October 2024 07:45 · Roisin O'Connor]

Liam Payne: The ambitious One Direction star who struggled with dark side of fame

Born in Wolverhampton, England, Payne was drawn to singers such as Usher and Justin Timberlake. He remembered his childhood as a happy one: his father, Geoff, worked as a fitter, while his mother, Karen, was a nursery nurse.

“It was great, though we didn’t have much,” he told The Telegraph in a 2017 interview. “Dad was in debt, but they did the best they could. It makes you dream a bit, you know?”

Believing a career in music would be “the thing that made my parents proudest”, he first appeared as a contestant on reality TV contest The X Factor in 2008, but was told by judge and show creator Simon Cowell to come back in two years.

When he returned in 2010, he was placed in the group One Direction alongside fellow contestants Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson.

“At the start we couldn’t get past our own egos,” he told The Guardian in a 2019 interview. “Everybody had their own little thing – it was like having four older brothers.” He claimed to be “a bit more mature” than his bandmates, which he said was due to his focus and ambition for a career in show business.

After placing third in the final, One Direction was signed to judge and show creator Simon Cowell’s label Syco Entertainment. Their debut single, “What Makes You Beautiful”, was an international success upon its release in September 2011, reaching No 1 on the UK singles chart.

What followed was a combined fan and media frenzy that drew comparisons to Beatlemania – One Direction, or “1D”, sold more than 70 million records worldwide and today are considered one of the biggest boybands in music history. They released five albums, including their 2011 debut Up All Night, and won a number of awards including seven Brits and four MTV Video Music awards.