Former One Direction star Liam Payne, who formed the boyband alongside bandmates Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson in 2010, met his tragic demise on Wednesday after falling from the balcony of his third-floor hotel room in Buenos Aires. His sudden death sent a shockwave across the world as fans and celebrities alike flooded media platforms with heartfelt tributes.
Liam Payne Reportedly Blamed His Struggles on Former Band
Before the tragedy, Liam Payne reportedly made some shocking admissions about his past as a One Direction band member, and how it influenced the way he turned out. A guest named Rebecca claimed she noticed the musician displaying behavior similar to someone under the influence of cocaine, seemingly seeking the attention of the other guests. He smashed his laptop at some point, prompting Rebecca to approach him out of concern, but his response threw her off. She revealed,
“I went over, asked ‘Are you OK?’ But he just kind of grunted. Then he said ‘I used to be in a boyband. That’s why I’m so f**ked up.’ I couldn’t believe he’d just come out and said something like that. There was a lot more swearing and he took the laptop over and went to get back in the lift.”
Rebecca also disclosed Liam’s wild encounters with other hotel guests, including his rants about Americans being “crazy” and “dangerous,” and fake choking a girl in the elevator. People from his entourage eventually approached the guests, apologizing for Liam’s behavior, claiming, “he just gets so high sometimes.” Notably, the late star has been open about his struggles with drugs and alcohol addiction. Despite his many attempts to attain sobriety, it appears those addictions plagued him all these years, eventually leading to his untimely death at 31.
As investigations into Liam Payne’s death continue, eyewitnesses to the former One Direction star’s final moments are beginning to speak out. A guest at the Buenos Aires’s Casa Sur Palermo hotel recently spoke to DailyMail about a confrontation he had with a woman at the hotel lobby earlier in the day. According to the guest, Michael Fleischmann, the singer seemed “a little wild” three hours prior as he argued with the unidentified woman, repeatedly telling her,
“I’ll give you $20,000 dollars just because I can. I have $55 million and I like to help people.”
Throughout this confrontational exchange, the guests admitted the woman in question looked tense, even as she translated his disturbing words into Spanish to the hotel manager. According to hotel guest Michael Fleischmann, he never recognized the man acting out in the hotel as the famed One Direction singer Liam Payne, until reports of his death flooded the media. Michael’s mom backed her son’s claims, telling the outlet that the woman he argued with seemed “extremely uncomfortable,” and “apprehensive.”
The mother and son wound up entering the same elevator as Liam Payne as he headed back to his hotel room. Although that was the last they saw of the “upset, wild and agitated” artist, they admitted to sighting the mystery woman again outside the hotel, making a phone call just moments before he plunged to his death.
