Former One Direction member Liam Payne dies aged 31

Former One Direction member Liam Payne has died. He was 31.

The British-born singer-songwriter fell from the third floor of his hotel room at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.

Buenos Aires police said in a statement that Payne’s fall resulted in “extremely serious injuries” and medics confirmed his death at the scene.

Pablo Policicchio, spokesman for the Buenos Aires City Department of Security, told the outlet that the musician “threw himself from the balcony of his room.”

Policicchio said police were dispatched to the hotel in response to a 911 call about an “aggressive male who may be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”

According to Policicchio, responding officers heard a thud and found Payne’s body in the hotel yard.

Alberto Crescenti, head of the state’s emergency medical system, told Argentina’s Todo Noticias television that Payne fell 13 or 14 meters and “suffered serious injuries that caused his immediate death.”

“We arrived in time to try to revive him, but there was nothing we could do,” Crescenti said, adding that authorities are investigating the circumstances of Payne’s death and that an autopsy will be performed.

It’s unclear whether the fall was intentional or accidental, and representatives for Payne – who said he had a “nice day” in a Snapchat video posted hours before his death – did not immediately respond to the request from Page Six for comment.

TMZ, which first reported the news, obtained a photo showing Payne’s body lying on the hotel’s wooden deck, surrounded by tables and chairs.

The media did not publish the image in its entirety, but the tattoos on the man’s arm matched Payne’s.

Witnesses told TMZ the fall occurred shortly after 5 p.m. local time and that the pop star had previously behaved erratically in the hotel lobby.

He reportedly smashed his laptop and had to be carried back to his room.

Sources told the outlet that Payne — who has a seven-year-old son named Bear with his ex-girlfriend Cheryl Cole — and his girlfriend Kate Cassidy arrived in Argentina on September 30.

The couple uploaded several social media posts together showing them having fun on vacation.

On October 2, the couple even attended Payne’s former One Direction bandmate Niall Horan’s concert at the Movistar Arena in Buenos Aires.

Cassidy left the country on Monday and Payne checked into the CasaSur Palermo Hotel.

The late star previously revealed that he hit “rock bottom” due to his alcohol and drug use during his time with One Direction – which formed in 2010 and disbanded in 2015.

“I was worried about how far down I would go. Where is the low point for me? And you would never have seen it. I’m very good at hiding it. Nobody would have ever seen it,” Payne explained on the “Diary of a CEO” podcast in June 2021.

When host Stephen Bartlett asked his guest if he ever had “suicidal thoughts” during his dark days, the “Strip That Down” hitmaker admitted: “Yes. There are some things I’ve definitely never, ever talked about.”

He continued: “It was really, really, really serious. It was a problem. And it wasn’t until I looked at myself afterwards that I thought, ‘Okay, I need to sort myself out.'”

Payne went on to share how his substance abuse had affected his mental health.

“There were a few pictures of me on a boat and I was all bloated,” he recalled. “I call it my pills and alcohol face. My face was about ten times bigger than it is now.”

He added: “I just didn’t like myself very much and then I made a change.”

Payne said that because he and his former bandmates – Horan, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik – became so famous so quickly, they often had to stay in their hotel rooms and resort to the minibar.

“At one point I just thought, ‘Well, I’ll have a party,’ and that seemed to continue for many years of my life,” he recalled.

“And then when you look back at how long you’ve been drinking, that’s how it is [like]“Jesus Christ, that’s a long time,” even for someone as young as I was. It was wild, but it was the only way to express the frustration of the day.”

Despite his gratitude for being part of the band, Payne lamented that he didn’t always have the “freedom to make decisions and do things.”

The “X Factor” alum confessed that, like many people, he adopted an unhealthy lifestyle during the COVID-19 pandemic when he suddenly went from being very busy to having nothing to do at all.

In May 2023, Payne announced that he had been sober for more than 100 days.

“I feel great. I feel really, really good and the support from the fans has been really, really good, so I’m super happy,” he told iFL TV at the time.

However, after his death, a source who knew him told Page Six that he had been “going through periods of ruinous behavior for a long time.”

“He was open about his problems but tried to downplay them at times. His demons were much worse than he let on,” our source said.

In May, Payne’s ex-fiancée Maya Henry revealed that she had undergone a traumatic medical abortion several years ago, apparently while she was dating the heartthrob.

“I definitely had some complications [following my abortion]and I had to go to the hospital alone,” she told People while discussing her fictional book “Looking Forward,” which was “definitely inspired by events from her real life.”

According to the Daily Mail, Henry accused Payne of compulsive contact and began taking legal action against him just days before his death.

As for his relationship with Cassidy, Payne came under fire in August for making a “misogynistic” comment to her in a TikTok video.

After Cassidy showed off her outfit to her followers before a sushi dinner in England, her boyfriend told her with a serious face: “You look good – nice and covered up for once.” Cassidy giggled awkwardly and turned off the camera.