Liam Payne, Former One Direction Singer, Dies In Buenos Aires After Hotel Fall

Liam Payne, a former member of the boy band One Direction, was found dead Wednesday in Buenos Aires after falling from the third-floor balcony of a hotel, according to ABC and The Associated Press. He was 31 years old.

Alberto Crescenti, head of emergency medical services in Buenos Aires, told Todo Noticias that Payne had fallen 13 or 14 meters (about 43 to 46 feet) from a balcony onto an internal patio of the Casa Sur Palermo Hotel. First responders found him gravely injured as a result of the fall.

“It wasn’t possible to do anything,” Crescenti said.

Police responded to an emergency call from the hotel just after 5 p.m. saying there was an “aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol,” said Pablo Policicchio, the communications director for the Buenos Aires Security Ministry, in a statement to the AP.

In the call, a hotel manager said there was “a guest who is overwhelmed with drugs and alcohol,” according to a transcript obtained by the AP. “He’s destroying the entire room and, well, we need you to send someone, please.”

The caller also reportedly said, “I don’t know if the guest’s life is in danger because he is in a room with balcony, and we are afraid he could do something that threatens life.”

Police and local prosecutors are investigating, and an autopsy has been scheduled, according to Crescenti.

Payne came into the spotlight when he auditioned for “X Factor,” first in 2008, then in 2010. His second time on the show, judge Simon Cowell put Payne and four other boys in the band One Direction. The group was together until 2016, and a year later, Payne released his first single as a solo artist.

This week, Payne’s ex-girlfriend Maya Henry accused Payne of making unwanted contact with her and her friends and family.

“He’ll create new iCloud accounts to message me ― it’s always a new damn iCloud account,” Henry said on TikTok. “Every time I see one pop up on my phone I’m like, ‘Here we fucking go again.’”

“Also, he will email me … not only me, but he’ll blow up my mom’s phone. Is this normal behavior to you?” she added.

In 2023, Payne celebrated being 100 days sober after going to rehab in Louisiana. The rehab stay came after Payne told Men’s Health in 2019 that he has struggled with alcohol addiction and his mental health.

“It’s difficult when you have the level of fame that we had in the band,” he said. “There have been a lot of people in trouble with mental health that aren’t really getting the help that they need, and I think that’s a bit of a problem in our industry. It’s the same s— that happens to everyone, that’s been happening since the ’70s. You know what the traps are and if you are lucky enough, like me, to be able to get out of that scenario and back into a sense of normality, then you know it’s a bit different.”

He said on a podcast in 2021 that during the early days of One Direction, he “didn’t like” himself “very much” and that his days were filled with “pills and booze” and “moments of suicidal ideation.”

Payne is survived by his 7-year-old son, Bear Grey Payne, whose mother is musician Cheryl, who was known as Cheryl Cole when she was a member of British-Irish pop group Girls Aloud. The two split as a couple in 2018 but continued to co-parent Bear.

He is also survived by his parents, Geoff and Karen Payne, and two older sisters, Ruth and Nicola.

Claudia Koerner and Liza Hearon contributed to this story.