Former member of world-famous boy band, One Direction, passed away tragically on October 16th, 2024. Liam Payne fell from the third floor of a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Payne and his girlfriend, Kate Cassidy, were visiting Argentina to reunite with Niall Horan, another former One Direction member. They arrived on September 30th, and Cassidy returned home, leaving Payne solo on October 14th.
Photo by Vandy Vance
“In the afternoon, police from Precinct 14B responded to a 911 call directing them to the hotel, where an aggressive man was reportedly under the influence of drugs or alcohol,” according to a statement from the The Sistema de Atencio Medica de Emergencia shared with NBCUniversal. Emergency calls about the incident also included details, reported by CBS News, stating that the man had, “thrown himself from the balcony of his room.”
Numerous reports suggest that Payne had been using drugs, including “pink cocaine”, though officials have yet to confirm these claims. It appears that Liam Payne was struggling mentally, and his actions may have been a response to this distress.
The news of this star’s passing deeply impacted young people worldwide. For many of his younger fans, this was the first time someone they had grown up listening to and following had passed away. His death carried an especially haunting feeling for Generation Z.
“In some ways, it feels like I’m mostly mourning for that young girl, because I know how much it would have absolutely devasted me back then”, former One Direction fan, Kori Kanaday shares.