One Direction’s Liam Payne Reunited With Niall Horan 2 Weeks Before His Death – E! Online
Liam Payne Dead: Charlie Puth, Paris Hilton and More Stars Mourn One Direction Singer’s Death
Liam Payne remained a Directioner through and through.
Nearly two weeks before the One Direction singer tragically passed away at the age of 31, he and girlfriend Kate Cassidy attended his fellow bandmate Niall Horan’s concert in Argentina on Oct. 2. As seen in videos shared to social media, the “Strip That Down” singer danced and clapped along while in the stands during the concert.
Ahead of Horan’s show, Payne also expressed that he was hoping to chat with his former groupmate, noting that a conversation may have been long overdue.
“I think we might just go and say hello,” he said in a Snapchat video reposted to social media Oct. 1. “It’s been a while since me and Niall have spoken. We’ve got a lot to talk about. And I would like to square up a couple of things with the boy. No bad vibes or anything like that. But just, um, we need to talk.”
Payne died on Oct. 16 after falling from a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, according to Good Morning America and CNN, who cited police.
Prior to his death, the English musician had been open about the ups and downs he faced within the group—which also included Zayn Malik, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson—and including after they disbanded in 2015.
“It was a little bit dark and twisted towards the end of it, but the last few shows were really beautiful moments because the pressure cooker had been let off,” Payne told The Guardian in December 2019. “It was almost like counting down to holiday—we were going to wake up that Monday morning with no schedule.”
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for iHeartMedia
And though Payne had made some comments about his former band mates over the years (for instance, he previously said his 2017 single “outsold everybody within the band”), he later clarified that he had come to some realizations in more recent years.
“I think for me, a lot of what I said just came from the wrong place,” he said in a video posted to YouTube July 2023. “I was so angry at what was going on around me that instead of taking a look inwards I decided to take it outwards.”
Nonetheless, as Payne shared amid completing a 100-day stay in rehab, his groupmates were always there for him. “The rest of the boys have really stuck by me,” he continued. “When I needed them most, they kind of came to my rescue.”
Payne went on to note that returning to music also served as another turning point, as he was looking forward to his future.
“I feel like I have a grip on life now and everything that was getting away from me,” he shared at the time. “After I got back out, that process had worked for me, but there were still some little bits left that I kind of had to deal with myself.”
Keep reading for a look back at Payne’s life in photos.
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2010
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2010
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2010
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2011
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2012
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2012
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2012
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2012
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2013
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2013
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2014
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2014
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2015
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2015
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2016
Marcus Ingram/Getty Images for iHeartMedia
2017
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for iHeartMedia
2017
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2017
Karwai Tang/WireImage
2018
Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
2018
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2018
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2019
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2020
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2021
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2021
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2022
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2022
Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Atlantis The Royal
2023
Dave Benett/Getty Images for Annabel’s
2023
Marc Piasecki/GC Images
2024
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