One Direction alum Liam Payne died at the age of 31 on Oct. 16 after falling from a hotel balcony. Hours before his death, he shared a final photo with girlfriend Kate Cassidy.
New details are emerging about Liam Payne‘s final days.
The former One Direction member died at the age of 31 on Oct. 16 after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, local authorities from El Sistema de Atención Médica de Emergencias (SAME) confirmed to Telemundo.
Hours before his death, Liam shared a photo to his Snapchat alongside girlfriend Kate Cassidy. The couple could be seen posing for a mirror selfie in their swimsuits.
In the image, Liam gave a small smile for the camera while sporting a pair of black swim trunks and a backwards, white baseball hat. Kate, meanwhile, wore a black bikini and woven visor with black sunglasses.
Kate has not spoken out publicly about Liam’s death. And although the photo was posted to Snapchat Oct. 16, Kate had actually left Argentina days prior to his passing. She shared a video to TikTok Oct. 14 that she had returned from South America to Florida, saying they had originally planned to be there for five days but ended up staying for two weeks.
The duo had been in Argentina to attend Niall Horan’s concert in Buenos Aires on Oct. 2, with Liam documenting the concert on his Snapchat, showing the couple dancing, grabbing sushi and taking a moment to chat with fans.
Kate and Liam had been dating for almost two years, and to hear her explain it, she had been a fan of Liam and One Direction from childhood.
The 25-year-old then held up a popsicle stick with a drawing of a brunette man in a white shirt and jeans, labeled “Liam.”
“It’s a popsicle stick—I don’t know why—of Liam,” she explained, before sharing a glimpse into what her life is like now “10 years later.”
Kate then took the camera into the “childhood bedroom where I literally drew this” and showed Liam, lying on her purple bedspread.
The couple shared a laugh in the video as Liam hugged Kate and joked, “Careful what you wish for.”
Liam—who shares 7-year-old son Bear Grey Payne with his ex Cheryl Cole—first found fame in 2010 when he, Niall, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik were brought together to form One Direction on The X Factor. Although being in the spotlight caused him to struggle with alcohol, he shared last year that he had completed a 100-day stay at a Louisiana rehab facility.
“I just needed to take a little bit of time out for myself actually because I kind of became somebody who I didn’t really recognize anymore,” Liam said in a video posted to YouTube. “And I’m sure you guys didn’t either.”
“I think for me, a lot of what I said just came from the wrong place,” he continued. “I was so angry at what was going on around me that instead of taking a look inwards I decided to take it outwards.”
Liam explained that he “took it out on everybody else,” which he noted was “just wrong really, and my own frustrations with my own career and where I kind of landed, so obviously I want to apologize for that.”
