Liam Payne was rumoured to have ‘bad blood’ with former One Direction bandmate Harry Styles – but debunked the claims in a touching message before his tragic death
Liam Payne put rumors of a long-standing feud between himself and former One Direction bandmate Harry Styles to rest in a heartwarming message before his tragic death on Wednesday.
The 31-year-old sadly passed away after falling from the third floor of his hotel room in the Palermo neighbourhood of Buenos Aires last night. He suffered multiple injuries, including a skull fracture, and tragically could not be saved.
Alberto Crescenti, head of Buenos Aires emergency services, said: “Our role was to head there quickly, give medical attention, and try to resuscitate him, but his injuries were incompatible with life. Based on what the team saw, there was apparently a cranial fracture and extremely serious injuries that led to his immediate death.”
Rumours of bad blood between Liam and former bandmate Harry Styles were rife after the Strip That Down singer admitted in 2017 that Harry’s debut solo single ‘Sign Of The Times’ was “not my sort of music”. But Liam later opened up about the misconstrued comment, saying his criticism came from a place of insecurity.
When Harry walked away from the 2023 Grammys with two awards – Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album – for his record Harry’s House – Liam was full of praise in an unlikely Instagram post, which drove fans wild.
The singer posted a black and white snap of Harry as he gazed down proudly at his Grammy and wrote: “Wow… this image is really something to wake up to and when you write music like you do Harry you deserve every millisecond of that moment looking down smiling at the trophy you’ve earned. God bless you brother congratulations.”
Liam also rushed to Harry’s defence when he faced criticism for his groundbreaking Vogue cover, making history as the first male to appear solo on the cover of the US edition since it was first printed 128 years ago, and posing in a striking grey dress. “I thought it was great”, Liam said. “I think he’s enjoying himself and he’s free to do as he wishes and you know I just think that people don’t need to be so bothered about stuff.”
Shortly after Liam’s death last night, Harry’s mum, Anne Twist, led a flood of touching tributes by posting a broken-hearted emoji on Instagram alongside the caption: “Just a boy.”
In 2021, Liam appeared on the Diary of a CEO podcast with Steve Bartlett, and said he had a great relationship with his former bandmates. He revealed: “I get on great with most of them. I had a call from Harry the other day. I love him to pieces. Louis I speak to a lot. We have always had a close connection.”
He also publicly apologised to the boys after criticising them in a series of scathing attacks on the Logan Paul podcast. He admitted that this came from a place of insecurity.
“A lot of what I said came from the wrong place. I was so angry at what was going on around me, and instead of taking a look inwards, I decided to look outwards at everybody else. And I just think, yeah, I took it out on everybody else, which is just wrong, really,” Liam said in the video.
“My own frustrations with my own career and where I kind of landed, I took shots at everybody else, which is wrong, so obviously I want to apologise for that in the first instance, because that’s definitely not me,” he added.
“The rest of the boys really stuck by me, and when I needed them the most, they kind of came to the rescue. Even Zayn as well, which is why I did send him a little thank you online, actually,” the singer shared.
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