Born: August 29th, 1993
Died: October 16th, 2024
Liam Payne, who has died at the age of 31, was the most enigmatic member of the world-conquering boy band One Direction. While bandmates such as Harry Styles and Niall Horan became famous for their boisterous personalities and ease in the spotlight, Payne cut a more cryptic figure. He had a rich and expressive singing voice and, with time, would become one of the group’s leading songwriters. But he was never as naturally at ease with fame as the rest of the band, whom he met while auditioning on the ITV talent show X Factor. He died a pop icon – but fans will feel they never truly understood who he was.
In One Direction, Payne gained a reputation as “the sensible one”. Though Louis Tomlinson and Styles were older than him, he became the unofficial big brother figure in the ranks. Referred to by the 1D camp as “Daddy Direction”, he was regarded as a steady pair of hands amid the chaos. If the band’s management needed something communicated to the group – or someone complained about One Direction “throwing plates out of hotel windows”, as happened on one occasion – it was Payne who received the call.
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“I’ve always been a bit of an older soul,” he said in 2017. “When something was going wrong, I’d get a phone call. If there was an apology needed, it was me. I was the spokesperson for the band, as it were, with the press and the label.”
But despite that streak of common sense, the loneliness he experienced as an overnight pop star would wear Payne down. As with many artists before him, he turned to drugs – medicating his anxieties with “booze and pills”. “What else are you going to do,” he once said when talking about the hermit-like existence of a pop sensation who cannot leave their hotel because they will be instantly mobbed by fans. “The minibar is always there.”
[ Liam Payne death: Initial report ‘suggests cocaine’ in his system, says officialOpens in new window ]
Assembled on X Factor under the calculating gaze of pop supremo Simon Cowell, One Direction were a product of the reality TV age. But they were also a throwback to the hysterical days of The Beatles. As with John, Paul, George and Ringo, their cheeky charms translated readily to the American market – a tough proving ground for so many acts from the other side of the Atlantic. Insta-fame propelled Payne to an estimated net worth of £60 million – his earnings boosted by the fact he co-wrote many of One Direction’s songs.
But wealth did not bring happiness, and after the band fractured in 2016 he seemed adrift. While Styles and Horan went on to successful careers, the arguably more musically gifted Payne struggled to find a purpose.
He had never quite fit in within One Direction. But without the band, he was just as lost. He was off the clock and had never really had a normal adult life, and cocaine and alcohol became even more of a crutch. He would talk about experiencing terrible lows – feeling nobody else could understand what he was going through. “I was worried how far my rock bottom was going to be,” he told Men’s Health magazine. “Where’s rock bottom for me? And you would never have seen it. I’m very good at hiding it. No one would ever have seen it.”
Payne was born in 1993 in Wolverhampton in the British midlands. His mother Karen was a nursery nurse, father Geoff a fitter at Goodrich Aerospace. Payne was born premature and, in early childhood, required daily injections due to a dysfunctional kidney.
He had two older sisters, who doted on a baby brother whose love of singing was apparent from an early age. He was always first to the karaoke machine during holidays at his grandfather Ken’s pub in Cornwall. In his early teens, he gravitated towards the aggressive rap-metal of groups such as Linkin Park – their abrasive sound about as far from 1D’s feelgood pop as imaginable.
He attended Collingwood Primary School in Wolverhampton and St Peter’s Collegiate secondary school, where he excelled as an athlete. He became a star cross-country runner and was ranked as one of the UK’s top-three athletes in his category and age group. He also took up boxing after a run-in with bullies at school, which he left with 11 GCSEs.
He went on to study a musical technology course at City of Wolverhampton Technical College, where his love of live performance saw him appear in a youth production of Saturday Night Fever. However, he was also realistic about his chances of making it in the business – his back-up plan was to work a factory job alongside his father.
The family was not wealthy and their home was cramped. “My place was on the floor with the dog, there was no space on the sofa,” Payne would recall. “Dad was in debt, but they did the best they could. It makes you dream a bit, you know?
Payne auditioned for X Factor twice. In 2008, aged 14, he sang Fly Me to the Moon – impressing the judges despite the fact that his voice was breaking and he was having to relearn how to sing. He made it through the initial stages to the “judges’ house” round, where Simon Cowell advised him to come back in two years.
He duly returned and aced his audition with a rendition of Cry Me a River. He was put together with four other fellow contestants to form a boy band, One Direction. They finished third – but their star potential was clear and Cowell signed them to his SyCo label for a reported £2 million.
[ Why singer Liam Payne’s death is hitting One Direction fans hardOpens in new window ]
Payne had a colourful personal life. He had a relationship with Cheryl Cole, 10 years his senior, whom he had first met when he was 14, and she was a judge on X Factor. They had a son, Bear, but separated in 2018 when the child was just a year old. He then dated model Naomi Campbell and, in 2020, became engaged to 19-year-old model and actress Maya Henry. Their relationship was volatile and they broke up for good in 2022, after which he started seeing influencer Kate Cassidy.
One Direction were stars from the outset. The X Factor Live Tour visited what is now Dublin’s 3Arena in February 2011, where their good-natured, if slightly shambolic, performance was rapturously received. Soon, they had left reality TV far behind and were performing in arenas and stadiums across the world while clocking up an estimated 20 million in album sales.
The pressure was intense and Zayn Malik was the first to crack. He left the group in 2014, saying he wanted “to be a normal 22 year old”. Payne stepped in to cover his former bandmate’s vocals during live shows, but after years of near-constant work, he and the rest of One Direction were running on empty.
They played their final Irish shows in October 2015 and, though the future was uncertain, all involved were relieved that the madness had ended – none more so than the sensitive Payne. On his 2019 single Strip That Down, he sang, “I used to be in 1D/Now I’m free.”
He is survived by his parents, Geoff and Karen, sisters Ruth and Nicola, and his son Bear.