Louis Tomlinson made a special vow to his late One Direction bandmate Liam Payne to be there for his only son in a heartfelt tribute on Thursday following the singer’s death.
“I want you to know that if Bear ever needs me I will be the Uncle he needs in his life and tell him stories of how amazing his dad was,” wrote Tomlinson, a father of one, in a statement shared to his social media.
The late singer was survived by 7-year-old Bear Grey Payne, whom he shared with his ex-partner, singer Cheryl Cole.
Liam Payne died from injuries sustained in a fall from a third-floor balcony of a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Wednesday. He was 31.
The late singer was open about his love for his only child despite choosing not to share photographs of his face on social media.
“He’s so big now. He’s a big boy, and he looks like a mini-me, as if we need anymore me in the world,” said Payne, who remarked on seeing his son in a Snapchat video in August.
In a separate clip shared by The Daily Mail from 2020, Payne similarly declared that he can “see a lot of” himself in his child.
“He did something really cute this week that I have to mention, he was like, ‘Oh, we need you here now, Daddy.’ Bless him. Made me want to cry,” he said at the time.
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Payne — in a TikTok Live from the same year — revealed that he hoped both his son and Tomlinson’s son, Freddie Reign Tomlinson, would get to “meet one day.”
“Freddie and Bear had a video conversation the other day from sending videos to each other,” he said. “My son was being rather moody as it was probably way past his bedtime but Freddie sent some really cute videos across which was great to hear.”
He told People in 2018 that his son is a fan of his music and shared a rare photo of the boy in front of an advertisement for his single “Teardrops” in March.
He captioned the photo alongside emojis, “I want to be on a billboard one day daddy.”