Shocking images believed to be from inside Liam Payne’s hotel room show a scene of devastation, with white powder, discarded foil, empty champagne flutes, and a shattered TV.
Authorities are reportedly set to probe who supplied Liam Payne with the substances linked to his tragic death, pending test results confirming the presence of narcotics in his room.
Liam, 31, tragically passed away on Wednesday after plummeting from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires’ Palermo neighbourhood. Local authorities stated that the One Direction star fell into the courtyard of the Casa Sur Hotel, where medics later confirmed his death.
Photographs claiming to show the interior of the deluxe suite Liam had checked into earlier that week were published by Argentinian media outlets, including La Nacion and Clarin, just hours after his passing. The images, allegedly taken inside Liam’s room at the upscale Hotel CasaSur Palermo, appear to show remnants of a white powder believed to be cocaine, burnt aluminium foil, and a smashed TV.
La Nacion reported that a 911 call from a hotel manager described a guest as being “off his head on drink and drugs”. The damage to the TV screen was allegedly caused by a forceful blow from a heavy object or a fist.
A partially consumed glass of what seemed to be champagne and another empty glass were left beside the broken television.
A photo of the hotel room revealed a Dove soap packet, an empty glass, aluminium foil scraps, a burnt candle, and the charred remains of a drinks can on a desk, alongside a mysterious white powder that authorities will test to determine if it’s cocaine.
According to La Nacion, the bathroom contained wax residue and a crumpled piece of burnt aluminium foil which may have been used as a makeshift crack pipe. The police will investigate who supplied Liam with any illicit substances found in his room.
Clarin published photos with the caption: “Damage and drugs in the hotel room Liam Payne was staying in in Buenos Aires.”
Liam had previously opened up about his struggles with addiction, revealing that he had experienced “severe suicidal thoughts” and was heavily into drugs during his One Direction days. In a 2021 interview on the Diary of a CEO podcast, he confessed: “There is some stuff that I have definitely never, never spoken about. It was really, really, really severe. It was a problem… And it was only until I saw myself after that I was like, ‘Right, I need to fix myself.'”
The late singer, who had a seven-year-old son with ex Cheryl Cole, recalled seeing photos of himself on a boat looking “all bloated out,” which he referred to as his “pills-and-booze face. My face was just, like, 10 times more than it is now. I just didn’t like myself very much, and then I made a change.”
In a bombshell reveal with Men’s Health Australia back in 2019, Payne came clean about his battles with fame and how he turned to booze to deal. “It’s almost like putting the Disney costume on before you step up on stage and underneath the Disney costume I was pissed quite a lot of the time because there was no other way to get your head around what was going on,” he spilled.
“I mean, it was fun. We had an absolute blast, but there were certain parts of it where it just got a little bit toxic.”
Fast forward to 2023, and Payne’s hitting YouTube with some massive news he’s hit the 100-day sober mark after a stint in rehab. Spilling the beans in his vid, he said: “I just kind of feel like I’ve got more of a grip on life and everything that was getting away from me, I just feel like I’ve got more of a handle on it,” The pop star owned up, admitting, “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. And I’m sure you guys didn’t either. I was in bad shape up until that point and I was really happy to kind of put a stopper to life and work.”
