More details are emerging about the circumstances surrounding the death of Liam Payne, who plunged from a third-floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires on Wednesday.
The body of the 31-year-old singer, who was best known as a member of the boy band One Direction, was found in the courtyard of CasaSur Palermo Hotel. Officials said he could not be revived.
Argentine officials on Thursday said a preliminary autopsy conducted on Payne’s body found that he died from multiple traumas and internal and external bleeding. No foul play is suspected.
Here’s what we know.
Why was Payne in Argentina?
The 31-year-old singer had arrived in Argentina two weeks before his tragic death. The trip, he said on social media, was to support former bandmate Niall Horan during an Oct. 2 concert tour stop at Movistar Arena.
Before leaving, he posted a Snapchat story about wanting to reconnect with Horan.
“It’s been a while since me and Niall have spoken,” he said. “I would like to square up a couple things with the boy. No bad vibes or nothing like that but just — but we need to talk.”
Payne had been traveling with girlfriend Kate Cassidy, who returned to the U.S. two days before his death, saying on TikTok: “We were supposed to be there for like five days, turned into two weeks, and I was just like, I need to go home.”
What is the singer’s background?
Payne and his bandmates shot to fame at a young age. He was 16 when he appeared on the U.K. talent competition “X Factor,” where judges decided he would join Horan, Harry Styles, Zyan Malik and Louis Tomlinson to create One Direction. The band, which formed under the tutelage of mega-producer Simon Cowell, didn’t take the show’s top prize but gained widespread fame. They also racked up a slew of hits, including “What Makes You Beautiful” and “Steal My Girl,” before going on hiatus in 2015 after Malik’s abrupt exit.
Payne, like his disbanded counterparts, went on to launch a solo career; highlights included the songs “Strip That Down,” “Get Low,” “Familiar” featuring J Balvin and “For You” with Rita Ora. In 2022, he turned critical of his former bandmates during an interview with Logan Paul, positioning himself as the most successful 1D alum and saying he “disliked” Malik.
Payne also opened up about his struggles with mental health, pills and alcohol, saying that he turned to alcohol as a way to cope with the intense fame that enveloped One Direction. In 2023, he talked about his abuse of alcohol after he spent almost 100 days in a Louisiana rehab facility. In an eight-minute video posted on YouTube in July of that year, the singer said he was almost six months sober.
He spoke of his 7-year-old son, Bear, from his relationship with singer Cheryl Cole before their split in July 2018.
“There’s no point in being a dad when you’ve got nothing to teach,” he said. “Up until this point, I don’t think I really had much to [teach] other than … loving him.”
What happened leading up to his death?
In the days leading up to his unexpected death, Payne was reportedly dealing with legal issues involving another ex, Texan model Maya Henry. She dated and was engaged to Payne after his split with Cole until 2022. Henry had filed a cease-and-desist order against Payne, alleging he had repeatedly contacted her, People reported.
Henry alleged in a TikTok on Oct. 6, without naming Payne, that an ex would incessantly call, email and text her and her mother from different phone numbers and iCloud accounts. “Is that normal behavior to you?” Henry asked.
In May, Henry released “Looking Forward” — a fictional novel “inspired by true events” about the time she was still engaged to Payne.
“If you do something that’s nonfiction, everything has to be so factual and you can’t leave anything out,” she said on “The Internet Is Dead” podcast.
Payne traveled to Argentina to attend the Oct. 2 concert of fellow One Direction member Horan, delighting some fans about the possibility of a Payne-Horan reunion.
Payne was seen in a video shared on social media greeting fans at the concert, held at Movistar Arena — shaking hands with excited fans and playfully doing the macarena.
Early Wednesday, Payne was seen on now-deleted Snapchat stories eating breakfast with Cassidy, saying he was having “a lovely day in Argentina.” It was unclear, however, when the video was taken because Cassidy had left for the U.S. two days before that.
A city official and local law enforcement claimed that, before he fell from the balcony, Payne was “aggressive.” They said he seemed to be drunk or under the influence of drugs.
Later that day, police received an emergency call from a hotel worker asking for help with a guest.
“He is destroying the entire room and we need you to send someone,” the worker said, according to Reuters.
They believed the guest’s life was at risk because of the balcony in his room.
Alberto Crescenti, head of the state emergency medical system, said Payne succumbed to injuries suffered in the fall, with no chance of resuscitation.
A spokesperson for the Security Ministry of Buenos Aires municipality said in a statement that Payne “had thrown himself from the balcony of his room.” Arriving police heard a thud and found Payne’s body in the hotel courtyard, the spokesperson said.
What did his preliminary autopsy say?
The musician’s body was transported to a morgue where doctors performed an autopsy hours after his death on Wednesday. The incident is being investigated as a “doubtful death,” the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office of Argentina said Thursday in a statement.
A preliminary autopsy found that Payne died from multiple traumas and internal and external bleeding, the Argentine official said.
Medical examiners have requested a toxicology report, and forensic experts found no evidence of defensive injuries or foul play. The prosecutor’s office determined from the position of Payne’s body and the injuries sustained that he “did not adopt a reflexive posture to protect himself and that he may have fallen in a state of semi- or total unconsciousness.”
Authorities also found substances in Payne’s room that appeared to be drugs in addition to evidence of alcohol and narcotics consumption. Payne seemed to be alone and under the influence of drugs when he fell, officials said. Local police who surveyed his hotel room noted “various destroyed objects and furniture,” including a smashed TV screen.
