Friday, October 18, 2024 – Former One Direction band member,
Liam Payne spent the final years of his life in crisis, according to a source
close to him.
Payne died on Wednesday October 16th in Buenos Aires,
Argentina after falling from the third floor of a hotel. He was 31.
The cause of death was not immediately released, but police
said the “Strip That Down” singer may have been “under the influence of drugs
or alcohol” before throwing himself off the balcony of his room and sustaining
“extremely serious” and ultimately fatal injuries.
“Liam had been cycling
through periods of ruinous behavior for a long time,” an insider said to Page
Six.
“He was open about his
struggles but tried to downplay them at times. His demons were much worse than
he let on.”
“His demons were much worse
than he let on,”
Earlier on Wednesday, Payne posted a video on Snapchat
saying he was having a “lovely day in Argentina” with his girlfriend, Kate
Cassidy, but it appeared to have been old footage, as Kate, 25, flew home to
Florida earlier this week, according to her TikTok account.
The English pop star, who got his start on “The X Factor” in
2008 as one-fifth of One Direction, had spoken candidly in recent years about
battling addiction and mental health issues.
Payne said on a podcast in 2021 that he hit “rock bottom”
and experienced “suicidal ideation” during his time in the chart-topping boy
band, which broke up in 2016 and also included Harry Styles, Niall Horan and
Louis Tomlinson. (Zayn Malik quit the group in 2015.)
But Liam who shared a 7-year-old son named Bear with his ex
Cheryl Cole, announced in 2023 that he had gone to rehab and was more than 100
days sober.