‘Kind, funny and brave soul’: Liam Payne’s family pay tribute after his death

The singer died after falling from the third-floor balcony of a hotel in Argentina.

Local police said the 31-year-old fell into the courtyard of the CasaSur Hotel in the Palermo neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, before medics confirmed his death.

A statement from his family, issued via a spokeswoman to the PA news agency said: “We are heartbroken. Liam will forever live in our hearts and we’ll remember him for his kind, funny and brave soul. We are supporting each other the best we can as a family and ask for privacy and space at this awful time.”

Police in the Argentine capital said the music star’s hotel room had been “in complete disarray” with “various items broken”.

They added that a whiskey bottle, lighter and mobile phone from the internal hotel courtyard where Payne’s body was found had been retrieved.

A Buenos Aires security official said that an initial autopsy report suggested the singer had suffered multiple traumatic injuries and haemorrhages.

The report showed Payne’s drop was the cause of his fatal injuries, the official said.

Tributes have been paid to the singer, with pictures showing shocked fans gathering outside the hotel after police cordoned off the area, with forensic investigators in white protective suits and blue gloves seen entering and leaving.

Fans were photographed lighting candles and leaving flowers at the side of the road in an impromptu vigil as they paid tribute to the music star.

Reports say staff at the hotel made two calls to emergency services, with audio, being widely reported, revealing a staff member asked for assistance for a guest who was “intoxicated by drugs and alcohol”.

The person on the call also told the operator that the guest was “trashing the entire room” adding: “We need you to send someone, please”.

The individual said the guest was in a room with a balcony, “and we are a bit worried he’ll do something that will put his life at risk”.

According to police in the capital, officers were initially responding to reports “of an aggressive man who may have been under the effects of drugs and alcohol”.

The local Buenos Aires prosecution office, led by prosecutor Andres Esteban and secretary Maria Florencia Lavaggi, confirmed to the PA news agency it is leading the investigation into Payne’s death.

Former X Factor contestants have paid tribute to Payne, with Cher Lloyd, who appeared on the ITV programme in the same year, writing on Instagram that she will “cherish the memories made and the laughs we had”.

A post from the official X Factor account on X, formerly Twitter, described Payne as “immensely talented”, while the show’s former host Dermot O’Leary told ITV’s This Morning the singer was “kind of both wise and sort of a young soul at exactly the same time”.

One Direction was formed in 2010, with Payne, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Harry Styles, after they individually auditioned for The X Factor.

After becoming one of the biggest pop groups in the world, with five albums and four world tours, they went on indefinite hiatus in 2016.

Payne, who was born in Wolverhampton, released his debut solo album LP1 in December 2019, which included the songs Polaroid, Familiar and Strip That Down featuring Quavo.

The song was one of two tracks that reached the top 10 in the UK official charts, alongside For You with Rita Ora from the film Fifty Shades Freed – which the duo performed at the Brit Awards in 2018.

Payne was in a high-profile relationship with Girls Aloud singer Cheryl between 2016 and 2018 and the couple had a son, Bear, in 2017.

The singer previously said he struggled with alcoholism at the peak of his success with One Direction, describing hitting “rock bottom” to The Diary Of A CEO podcast host Steven Bartlett.

He admitted his addiction to alcohol continued during the Covid pandemic, but in 2023 he posted a YouTube video confirming he was almost six months sober after nearly 100 days in a US rehab facility.