Struggling with fame, turning to alcohol, and a split with his label — Liam Payne's life ended tragically in October 2024 when he fell from a hotel balcony. Were there signs warning of the trouble to come?
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00:00Struggling with fame, turning to alcohol, and a split with his label,
00:04Liam Payne's life ended tragically in October 2024 when he fell from a hotel balcony.
00:09Were there signs warning of the trouble to come?
00:11Growing up in a working-class family in Wolverhampton, situated in Britain's West
00:15Midlands, Liam Payne was a sickly child suffering from chronic kidney ailments.
00:20While attending school, Payne was bullied by older boys. He told We Love Pop,
00:25I went and told my parents and my teachers, but it didn't stop, so I had to sort it out myself."
00:29Sadly, Payne continued to be bullied even after becoming a celebrity.
00:33Payne skyrocketed to celebrity status in 2010, but he received an earlier — and
00:37far more bitter — taste of fame when he competed on The X Factor two years earlier, at age 14,
00:42and didn't make the cut. Speaking on Jordan Stephens' Killing It podcast, Payne said,
00:47People would ridicule me in the streets and all sorts when I was, like, 15 or 16.
00:51I once went in McDonald's when I was turning 16, and I went up to order my thing. Went to sit down
00:56with the girl I was with at the time, and a group of lads at the top of the stairs were like,
01:00X Factor reject! It was a really hollow moment.
01:04Two years after being booted off The X Factor, Liam Payne tried again. He fared far better with
01:08his second attempt in 2010, especially when he wound up being partnered with fellow contestants
01:13Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik to form One Direction. The group soared
01:18to success, and the accompanying fame proved to be a big adjustment for all of them, particularly
01:23Payne. As he admitted during the 2019 TV special Ant Middleton and Liam Payne Straight Talking,
01:28One Direction catapulted him to a level of celebrity that became isolating,
01:32leading him to become so engulfed in loneliness that he sank into deep despair.
01:36I'm quite lucky to be here still. It's just something I've never really shared with anyone.
01:42He went on,
01:43I can't go too deep into it because I don't know how I feel about it myself.
01:46I still haven't made my peace with it, to be honest. There's times where that level of
01:50loneliness and people getting into you every day.
01:53Just, every so often, you're like, when will this end?
01:56You know, and then that's almost nearly killed me a couple of times.
02:00In addition to bringing about feelings of isolation, One Direction also placed Liam
02:04Payne on a relentless schedule of rehearsals, recording songs, going on tour for concert
02:08performances, showing up for promotional appearances and talk shows, and all the
02:12other myriad pop star activities that consumed his days. Becoming an overnight sensation
02:17threw Payne for a loop, something he discussed while appearing on the Diary of a CEO podcast.
02:22There's no guidebook. They don't give you a little
02:24DVD on the way and say, here, you're a pop star. This is what you gotta do.
02:27That was certainly true when One Direction went on the road. While on tour, Payne and
02:31the other 1D members were so besieged by fans that, for all intents and purposes,
02:35they became prisoners trapped within hotel rooms. To cope, Payne turned to alcohol.
02:40Payne told The Guardian in 2019,
02:42"[Doing a show to however many thousands of people, then being stuck by yourself in
02:46a country where you can't go out anywhere, what else are you going to do? The minibar
02:50is always there. I was like, I don't really know how to deal with this. Once you start,
02:54you can't really press the stop button."
02:57When 14-year-old Liam Payne made his first appearance on the X Factor stage in 2008,
03:01he received high praise from one of the show's judges, singer Cheryl Cole.
03:05I think you're really cute. I think you've got charisma. You know,
03:08you give us that little cheeky wink."
03:10Nearly a decade later, they began dating, which became public knowledge when The Sun
03:14reported that Payne and Cole, who was 10 years his senior, were secret lovers.
03:18They eventually confirmed that report, and a few months later began appearing together
03:22on red carpets as a legit couple. Pregnancy rumors were confirmed in March 2017 when they
03:27announced they'd welcomed a son, Bear. At age 23, Payne found fatherhood to be challenging,
03:32something he openly admitted in an interview with Men's Health, saying,
03:35"'Becoming a dad at such a young age, it's such a difficult thing. And I think I built fatherhood up
03:39so much in my head that it kind of messed me up to start with. I started in a bad place with it.
03:44I think it spooked me out early on, and I was just worried I would not be enough to
03:47look after the both of them.'" Liam Payne's relationship with Cheryl
03:51Cole was not destined to stand the test of time. In July 2018, just over a year after the arrival
03:56of their son, Payne issued an update on the state of their union, tweeting,
04:00"'Cheryl and I are sad to announce that we are going our separate ways.
04:03It's been a tough decision for us to make. We still have so much love for each other as a family.'
04:08They may have split, but there were no hard feelings between the exes,
04:10who worked out an arrangement to co-parent their son."
04:13On an appearance on Logan Paul's Impulsive podcast, Payne discussed the split, saying,
04:18"'The relationship we have with each other now as friends has only grown.
04:21We broke up for the reason that we broke up, and now she gives me full autonomy of my life,
04:25and to do what I do.'"
04:27"'The same time I know he's being taken care of, because he's all she cares about,
04:30and that's, you know, you couldn't ask for more.'"
04:32After Payne's tragic death, Cole paid tribute via Instagram, sharing a photo of him with their
04:37infant son, and writing,
04:38"'As I try to navigate this earth-shattering event, and work through my own grief at this
04:42indescribably painful time, I'd like to kindly remind everyone that we have lost a human being.'"
04:47Shortly after Liam Payne and Cheryl Cole broke up, rumors emerged in August 2018 that he was
04:53dating Maya Henry, an American model from Texas. After a couple of years of dating, in August 2020,
04:58a photograph of the two revealed Henry was wearing a sparkling diamond ring.
05:02Payne subsequently confirmed that they were indeed engaged. Later that year,
05:05with both working from home during the pandemic, Payne admitted to People that
05:09they'd experienced their ups and downs, adding,
05:11"'This has been a very strange year, and we were really living on top of each other at one point.'"
05:15In June 2021, however, Payne revealed that they'd split up,
05:18but they subsequently got back together. He told People magazine in March 2022,
05:23"'She's still my fiancé. We're still here together, and we're very,
05:26very happy at the moment — probably the happiest we've been.' That happiness was short-lived."
05:31In May 2022, photos appeared on Instagram of Payne snuggling a woman who resembled Henry,
05:35but was not her. Henry wrote in a comment,
05:38"'I love all the fans so much, but please stop sending me these pictures of my fiancé wrapped
05:42around another woman. This is not me, and it's hard enough knowing this has happened without
05:46seeing it. Enough now.'" Payne's rep confirmed to People that they'd called off the engagement
05:50and gone their separate ways.
05:53Over the years, Liam Payne was candid about how much he'd grappled with his mental health during
05:56his years with One Direction. As he later revealed, he'd struggled even more after the
06:00group went on a hiatus that wound up becoming permanent. At a certain point, Payne began to
06:04experience anxiety, which increased in severity to the point that he eventually became terrified
06:09of leaving his house. He told Esquire Middle East,
06:12"'I developed a bit of agoraphobia. I would never leave the house. And I do sometimes suffer with
06:17it a bit in the sense that I'll get days where I just don't want to leave my house,
06:20even if it's just going to the shop.'"
06:23Following the end of her engagement to Liam Payne, Maya Henry did not go away quietly.
06:27Instead, she sat down and wrote her novel, Looking Forward. Published in May 2024,
06:32the fictional book is a thinly-veiled account of her failed relationship with Payne,
06:35recounting the tumultuous romance between pop star Oliver and a naive young woman named Mallory,
06:40describing Oliver's descent from charming celeb to unpredictable and cruel addict.
06:45Henry told People magazine the book was fiction, but it was inspired by true events.
06:49Henry also confirmed that one part of the plot, where Mallory aborts a pregnancy on orders from
06:53Oliver, was based on true events. Henry had a lot more to say in a video she posted on TikTok
06:58in early October 2024, claiming Payne confessed to her that he, quote,
07:02"'preys on One Direction fans because they will always be loyal to him,
07:06and they won't tell on him.'" She also accused Payne of relentlessly stalking her.
07:10"'Ever since we broke up, he messages me,
07:13blow up my phone.'" Not long after, her actions against Payne escalated.
07:17On October 14, just two days before Payne's death, her attorneys told the Daily Mail that
07:22she was commencing legal action against him. A statement to the outlet read,
07:26"'Maya Henry issued a cease and desist last week to Liam Payne following the emergence
07:30of new and concerning information.'" After his death, some disturbing reports
07:34about Liam Payne's state of mind began to emerge. One of those came from the Daily Mail,
07:38which reported that Payne had been devastated when his record label, Universal Music,
07:42quietly dropped him. As the mail's source alleged, the label was not only dissatisfied
07:47with the performance of Payne's previous efforts, but was also not thrilled with the direction he
07:50was taking with his new music. The source told the publication,
07:54"'Liam wanted to make the sort of music he enjoyed, but his label believed it wouldn't
07:57win over 1D fans, so there were disagreements about the way his brand should have been marketed.'"
08:01The source added that part of the label's decision lay with the mockery Payne had been
08:05experiencing on social media due to an onslaught of bad press, telling the publication,
08:09"'Unfortunately, part of the decision was motivated by all of the memes and
08:13jokes people made about him online. His team saw that as a sign to jump ship.'"
08:17Shortly after Liam Payne's death while staying in a Buenos Aires hotel,
08:21reports emerged of erratic behavior just before his fatal fall from a third-story balcony.
08:25As BBC News reported, the transcript of a 911 call from a hotel employee shed more light.
08:31The staffer told a 911 operator,
08:33"'Well, we've got a guest who has had too many drugs and alcohol and, well,
08:36when he is conscious, he is trashing the entire room, and we need you to send someone, please.'"
08:41While autopsy reports don't always tell the whole story, the results of a partial autopsy
08:45were subsequently released, confirming the staffer's suspicions that drugs were involved.
08:50According to that autopsy, Payne had ingested several substances,
08:53including cocaine, benzodiazepine, crack cocaine, and so-called pink cocaine,
08:58a mishmash of pharmaceuticals that often includes ketamine, methamphetamine,
09:02MDMA, and other substances. The autopsy also identified 25 separate injuries on Payne's body,
09:08indicating that injuries to his head, which were caused by his fall from the balcony,
09:12had likely resulted in his death. Meanwhile, The Standard reported that Argentinian state
09:16police were interviewing some employees at the hotel who were suspected of supplying Payne with
09:20drugs. If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, visit the Substance
09:26Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline
09:31at 1-800-662-HELP, 4357.