Louis Tomlinson remembers exactly where he was when he learned the tragic news about Liam Payne.
The former One Direction singer was a guest on The Diary of a CEO podcast earlier this week when he opened up about learning of the death of his former bandmate.
Tomlinson said he was "in the car, in L.A." when he found out, and that it was another One Direction member, Niall Horan, who told him the news. That was 2024, and Payne, at the age of 31, had fallen off a hotel room balcony in Buenos Aires.
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"I had the same feeling that I had with Félicité," Tomlinson said, referring to his sister who died suddenly in 2019, at the age of 18. "And I think anyone has this when they’re around someone who’s struggling — my 150% wasn’t nearly enough."
He added, "That’s when it’s my own arrogance, thinking that I could have helped, really, because it was so much deeper than what I could have done for him. He was definitely struggling at that time in his life."
Shortly after Payne's death, Rolling Stone reported that the musician "wrestled with his sexual identity, compounding his struggles and leading to risky behavior" before his death. One source told the publication that "Liam struggled with his sexuality" and that, while dating writer Maya Henry from 2018 to 2022, "he sexted men."
Rolling Stone's report also said that Payne's "final downward spiral" included hiring sex workers and taking drugs with a waiter right before the accident that led to his death.
