Former One Direction singer Liam Payne was found dead after the 31-year-old fell from his third-floor room balcony at a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentine police said on Wednesday. Police said in a statement that they were called to the CasaSur hotel in the capital’s leafy Palermo neighborhood after being notified of an “aggressive man who could be under the effects of drugs and alcohol”. (Also read: Liam Payne, star of One Direction, found dead in Buenos Aires)
In audio related to the case obtained from the Buenos Aires security ministry, a worker can be heard asking for police help.
“When he is conscious he is destroying the entire room and we need you to send someone,” the worker said, adding that the guest’s life was at risk because the room had a balcony.
The ‘mature one’
All through his time with One Direction, also comprising of Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson, Liam was given the title of the ‘mature and responsible one’. He was often credited as the ‘dad’ of the group, putting out fights and keeping all members in check during their many tours and outdoor schedules.
He talked about it in an interview with The Guardian in 2019. “I’d lived a different lifestyle from 14 to 16. Most kids try alcohol and experiment – I never did any of that because I thought there’s a chance that I might make it.” Band management ‘took advantage of this’ and assigned him a ‘very specific role’: to keep the rest in line.
“I was like, that’s great, innit – because then everyone in the band thinks I’m a d**k.” Remembering one of the band’s first hotel stays, he said, “We’ve got plates being thrown out the window, mattresses being ridden down the stairs, and I’m getting calls from the manager saying: ‘You need to sort it out’.”
Due to this, Liam was also often called ‘the boring one’ while Malik and Styles were the heartthrobs.
Drug and alcohol abuse
Around the same time, his life took a turn for the worse with alcohol and drug abuse. In 2021, he appeared on The Diary of a CEO podcast host Steven Bartlett Sunday. Liam said he “didn’t like myself very much” during the boy band days. He said they were filled with “pills and booze” and “moments of suicidal ideation.”
“There is some stuff that I’ve definitely never spoken about. It was really, really, really severe. It was a problem.” Things got much worse when they were on tours, locked up in hotel rooms for days. “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 said. “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. Then you look back at how long you’ve been drinking and you’re like, ‘Jesus Christ, that’s a long time.’”
Last year, he published a video to fans on his YouTube channel in which he spoke about his family, making new art and performing again after having given up alcohol. He thanked supporters for sticking with him through difficult times.
