Video LoadingVideo UnavailableClick to playTap to playThe video will auto-play soon8CancelPlay nowRunning towards me like over-excited puppies, One Direction were brimming with happiness and the thought of what lay ahead of them. It was early 2011 and they’d just come third on The X Factor, behind winner Matt Cardle and Rebecca Ferguson in second place. But everyone knew they were the standout stars of the show – and as editor of a popular teen pop magazine, my postbag and email inbox was already full of excited messages from fans. In fact, I’d never seen hysteria like it – and I just had to meet the band. Nobody could have predicted the twists and turns these young mens’ lives would take over the following years, sadly culminating in band member Liam Payne’s tragic death in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Wednesday, 16 October, at just 31 years old. The singer is reported to have fallen from the third floor of a hotel, with police initially at the scene after receiving w orried calls from hotel workers. After hearing a loud sound from an internal courtyard, they sadly discovered Liam’s broken body.
One Direction found fame on The X Factor in 2010
(Image: PA)
But some 13 years earlier, One Direction didn’t even really know what fame was. I was gathered with the band – comprising Liam, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson – in a lavish south east London mansion for their first-ever magazine photoshoot and they just couldn’t contain themselves. Startlingly younger in the flesh than they’d seemed on TV during their X Factor journey, full of naivety and the farting-and-burping punch-you-on-the-arm silliness of teenage boys. Louis was the eldest at 19, Zayn was 18, and Liam, Harry and Niall were the babies of the band, at 17 years old. Liam instantly stood out to me – for not standing out at all. Of course they were all good-looking lads, but once the initial excitement wore off that day, Liam was quieter than the others, less sure of himself, more shy. The bravado that millions of TV viewers had seen when Liam winked at X Factor judge Cheryl Cole during his first audition singing Fly Me To The Moon at just 14, despite being rejected, before confidently returning two years later to sing Cry Me A River and being sent through, was missing. Liam was also adorably naive and – despite his show of affection for Cheryl, whom he later dated from 2016 to 2018 – seemingly young for his age. He told me that his favourite food was chocolate, his favourite-ever song was “happy birthday cos it always means pressies”, his special skill was beatboxing and the nicest thing about him was that “my stylist says I’m thoughtful.”
Liam couldn’t help winking at Cheryl Cole in his first audition, before returning two years later
(Image: Ken McKay/Talkback Thames/REX/Shutterstock)
As we chatted, the young singer – who was yet to experience the enormous chart success of One Direction’s first huge hit, What Makes You Beautiful – confessed to me how much he missed being away from family life in Wolverhampton with his nurse mum, Karen, tradesman dad, Geoff, and two older sisters, Nicola and Ruth. “We have great fun, but I do miss home,” he explained, soft, brown eyes peering up through a floppy fringe of hair. “When you’ve been away from home this much, you do really miss it. When we’ve got the time we go home and it’s fun to just walk around the house.” This quietly composed little boy was standing on the brink of fame that he could never, ever have imagined. In the short years that followed, One Direction went on to become one of the world’s biggest boy bands, releasing five studio albums and embarking on fourth mammoth world tours, the final one grossing an eye-watering $208 million. There was also a film, 2013’s One Direction: This Is Us, directed by Morgan Spurlock, book deals, dolls and, proving that 1D could sell just about anything, even branded toothpaste and toothbrushes from Colgate.
Liam and Cheryl dated for two years, welcoming baby Bear into the world together
(Image: None)
Liam shared a rare shot of Bear, 7, earlier this year
(Image: Instagram)
As the band rocketed to superstardom, I interviewed them again on several occasions, and you could see how they changed with fame. Harry’s swaggering confidence and ever-growing tattoo collection, Niall’s new teeth, Zayn’s brooding disquiet with the band. Liam, too, came out of his shell but was initially so grounded and unaffected by the worldwide adoration they were receiving. He certainly seemed like the last person who would meet such an astonishingly tragic and sudden end. I always worried that Harry, who has since surpassed even his One Direction level of fame with a stellar solo career, or Zayn, who quit the band in 2015 “because I want to be a normal 22 year old who is able to relax” might struggle with the unrelenting glare of the spotlight, but Liam’s mental health clearly suffered and is well documented. On the 2019 Sky show Ant Middleton and Liam Payne: Straight Talking, he talked about loneliness and death, candidly saying: “There’s time where that level of loneliness and people getting into you every day. Just every so often, you’re like where will this end? That’s almost killed me a couple of times.” Brain spotting therapist Stefan Walters explained the pressures of living in the public eye exclusively to OK!, saying: “There’s such a blurring of the public persona with their private identity and it’s really hard to retain any sense of privacy. So having that time and that head space to work through their own processes, their own emotions, their own mental health, can feel very difficult. The average person doesn’t have that added pressure – most of us just have our own, private lives.” Sign up to OK!’s daily newsletter to get updates sent to your inbox for free
Just 45 minutes before news of Liam’s death emerged, he shared a photo on Snapchat alongside his girlfriend, Kate Cassidy
(Image: Snapchat/Liam Payne)
Fans have lit candles outside the hotel where Liam died
And while an investigation has been launched into Liam’s untimely death, Stefan wonders whether too much expectation was thrust upon the star and his bandmates. “Every celebrity is just a person – they have their own private lives, their own emotions, they have relationships that break down, they’re all going through difficulties themselves,” he says. “I think we expect them to somehow be these representatives for whatever they’re doing, rather than just being humans with struggles. We have to let them have a human side, rather than having these unrealistic expectations.” Looking back again at one of my chats with Liam, it’s heartbreaking to remember he was just like any other young man who once enjoyed the same things as the rest of us, and who cherished the same dreams. He ate at Wagamama (“I love it, it’s amazing!”), he liked hanging out with friends (“I love a bit of bowling!”) and he looked forward to getting hitched (“I think everyone in the band will get married one day!”) Yet he also admitted to his worst habit, “I worry,” and his biggest fear, even at 17: “Getting older”. Now, Liam’s worries and fears are no more.Story SavedYou can find this story in My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.Follow OK! MagazineFacebookTwitterCommentMore OnLiam PayneMatt CardleRebecca FergusonOne DirectionThe X Factor
