LIAM PAYNE - Gone Too Soon

As the world mourns the pop star following his tragic Oct. 16 passing, Us looks back at Liam Payne's incredible life and shocking death

- ISABEL MOHAN

It’s important you don’t bottle up how you feel,” Liam Payne wrote via Instagram in July 2023. “Feeling is one of the most amazing gifts we have, and I blocked things up so long it made me sick and lash out.”

A little over a year after those poignant words, the former One Direction star has passed away at age 31. It’s a devastating ending for the singer, who had spent half his life in the spotlight, first auditioning for The X Factor in 2008, when he was just 14. At the time Us went to press, details were still emerging about the exact circumstances that led to the British star’s tragic death after he fell from his third-floor balcony at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, around 5 pm local time.

On the surface, Payne appeared to be enjoying his break, dancing at his former bandmate Niall Horan’s concert in the Argentinian capital on Oct. 2 and chilling with his American girlfriend of two years, influencer Kate Cassidy. In the background, reports on social media and in the press told a different story. On Oct. 14, two days after Cassidy flew back to the States, Payne’s ex-fiancée, model Maya Henry, issued a cease and desist order to stop the star from contacting her and her family. She also spoke out about their relationship, alleging abuse and, eerily, saying that Payne had often told her he thought he was going to die, which she found manipulative.