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One Direction’s split seemed inevitable, but the break-up of one of the most successful boybands of all time still made headlines around the world and devastated millions of fans.
Formed on reality TV show The X Factor in 2010, the five-piece comprised late singer Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson. Despite placing third in the contest, the band shot to international fame upon the release of their debut single, the pop-rock anthem “What Makes You Beautiful”.
For the next six years, One Direction experienced a level of fame not seen since Beatlemania: screaming, hysterical fans; paparazzi; intrusive tabloid stories. After the band split in 2016 following a final farewell tour, each of the five members pursued solo careers with varying degrees of success.
Somewhat surprisingly, Payne – who had long-harboured ambitions of being a singer like his idols, Justin Timberlake, Usher and Chris Brown – admitted in 2017 that he had doubts about going solo. “I was just going to go into songwriting and carry on and do that,” he told Billboard. “But then I was like, ‘You’ve been trying to do this since you were 14 years old. You would be ridiculously stupid to turn down the option to have a deal.’ Coming out of the band, we had some pretty good opportunities around us. I had to do something.”
His first single, the R&B-influenced “Strip That Down”, was co-written by Ed Sheeran and his longtime collaborator Steve Mac and released a year after 1D split. While it received a mixed reception from critics, it charted in the Top 3 in the UK singles chart and also made the Top 10 in the US, eventually achieving over a billion streams on Spotify. Payne followed this with singles “Get Low” and “Bedroom Floor”, both top 40 hits, then a collaboration with Rita Ora, “For You”, which hit No 8 in the UK.
He jumped on the reggaeton trend of the late 2010s with “Familiar”, featuring Colombia’s “Prince of Reggaeton” J Balvin. Payne teamed up again with Sheeran with a return to his preferred R&B sound on 2019’s “Stack It Up”. Discussing the track on the KISS Breakfast show, Payne said: “We changed a couple of things about the song because [it] in a sense is kind of one-dimensional in a way, in that it’s about making money. It’s better to make money with or for someone, to share with someone.”
Payne only released one solo album in his lifetime, his debut LP1. It received largely negative reviews, as critics suggested he was struggling to carve out his own identity after the band. He released just one single in the past three years: “Teardrops”, which he said was about “the vulnerability of heartbreak and the challenge of overcoming those moments”.
Payne would open up about how being under the spotlight led to periods of burnout and depression.
“It sent me a bit AWOL at one point, if I’m honest,” he told The Telegraph in a 2017 interview. “I can remember when there were 10,000 people outside our hotel. We couldn’t go anywhere. It was just gig to hotel, gig to hotel. And you couldn’t sleep, because they’d still be outside.”
He said his exasperation with fame came to a head in New York in 2012 when he was walking to a restaurant with his parents, and a photographer accidentally pushed his mum down. “I was like, ‘Oh, f*** this. F*** this s***,’” he recalled. “There was a swarm of them and I just wanted a burger with my parents. I cried my eyes out. I thought, ‘I can’t do this,’ and really hated my life.”
His relationships were the subject of considerable media scrutiny, arguably most of all when he dated Cheryl Tweedy, the X Factor judge he first met when he was 14 and auditioning on the show. They began dating in 2016, when he was 22 and she was 32; she gave birth to their son, Bear, in 2017. The couple split the following year but continued to co-parent – Tweedy is understood to have managed most of the parenting responsibilities.
Payne shared a photo of himself with Bear, aged seven, in March, showing him looking at a billboard of Payne promoting “Teardrops”.
“I want to be on a billboard one day daddy,” he wrote in the caption.
After his relationship with Tweedy ended, Payne was in an on-off relationship with model Maya Henry. They were engaged twice, first in August 2020 and then in 2021, before ending their relationship for good in May 2022. Shortly before his death, Henry reportedly sent a cease-and-desist to the singer, accusing him of repeatedly contacting her, her friends and family.
It was uncertain how much contact Payne had with his former bandmates in the years after their breakup. In 2022, he came under fire from 1D fans for making a number of outlandish remarks on influencer Logan Paul’s podcast. During the conversation, Payne proceeded to criticise his former bandmates, claiming that the group dynamic was “a little bit toxic”, and calling out Malik in particular. He also claimed he almost “came to blows” with a bandmate backstage before a show.
Payne later walked back his comments and revealed he had checked into rehab. “A lot of what I said came from the wrong place,” he said. “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.”
Disclosing that he was in a sobriety treatment programme in Louisiana, he continued: “I have had a lot of time to recollect over those moments. I kinda had to go away to get better. The whole thing up to that point was just a scramble to stay relevant.”
Payne seemed to be attempting to reach out to his ex-bandmate Horan in the weeks before his death, as he flew out to Argentina with his girlfriend, influencer Kate Cassidy, to see him perform on 2 October.
“It’s been a while since me and Niall have spoken,” Payne told his followers on Snapchat.
“We’ve got a lot to talk about and I would like to square up a couple of things with the boy. No bad vibes or nothing like that but we just need to talk.” It is unclear if the pair managed to meet before or after the concert.
If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.
If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you.
