Former One Direction star Liam Payne was dating model Kate Cassidy, who was with him in Argentina before she returned to the U.S. in the days before his death
Payne, 31, fell from the third floor of his hotel room in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on October 16, as confirmed by personnel from the 14B Police Station.
On Wednesday afternoon, authorities received a call at 5:04 p.m. from the hotel manager, who said Payne was acting aggressively and may have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Responders from the 14B Police Station and Emergency Medical Attention System (SAME) arrived to find Payne’s body in the internal courtyard of the CasaSur hotel. A prosecutor and local authorities are investigating the cause of the singer’s death with assistance from the City Police.
Two days before his death, Cassidy had left the singer in Argentina. On Monday, she had uploaded a video to TikTok announcing that she was returning home to Florida after spending two weeks with Payne in Argentina. The couple had been in Buenos Aires to attend his former bandmate Niall Horan’s concert. Newsweek emailed a spokesperson for Cassidy for comment on Thursday outside of normal business hours.
“I was so ready to leave. Honestly, love South America, but I hate staying in one place for too long. And we were supposed to be there for 5 days, turned into two weeks and I was just like, ‘I need to go home,'” she said in the video, which documented her trip back to the U.S.
The 25-year-old said she broke out in a weird rash before her flight due to anxiety, so, when she finally landed, she was “so happy to be home. It was so relieving.”
Liam Payne and Kate Cassidy pose on the red carpet upon arrival at The 2022 Fashion Awards in London, England, on December 5, 2022. She had left the singer in Argentina days before his death.
DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images
In a TikTok video uploaded on September 20, Cassidy said how she and Payne met—and it almost didn’t happen. According to the model, they began dating in October 2022 after they met at a bar in Charleston, South Carolina, called Ritual.
Cassidy had only just started working there two weeks before meeting the singer and had tried to get out of work that evening.
“They put me on schedule for week two and I was like, ‘I really want to get off.’ So, I tried everything in my power to get off work this weekend and literally, nothing was working out,” Cassidy said.
“So, as I’m on the way to work, my manager texted me and she was like, ‘Liam Payne from One Direction is here … you’re going to be taking care of him tonight.’ So there he was outside eating his food and I had to approach him and I was, like, pretty much freaking out.
“When I first approached him, I actually got nervous and I like, turned around and went behind the bar … I guess we made awkward eye contact for a second. It’s so funny now, we talk about it, because he literally said to [his friend] Conor, he was like, ‘oh my God, did you see that girl walking over here? Like, I’m not leaving this bar until I get her number.'”
Cassidy said that, when she was talking with Payne, she didn’t think he was being flirty, just overly friendly. That all changed when he asked for her number. Later that night, she freaked out when she realized she didn’t include the area code.
“He asked for my number and I didn’t realize you had to put the +1 because I’m, obviously, from America. So I just put my area code, the 201, and he literally tried texting me and it, like, kept going green, not delivered,” Cassidy said.
“He literally thought I’d put the wrong number in as in, like, not interested. I was freaking out all night and then he realized I forgot to put the +1 and it went through.”
Once the mishap was sorted, the pair decided to go on a date before Payne’s flight back to England.
“So we had lunch; it went really well, and then we went bowling after, which was kind of cute; there was a bowling alley next door. And then after that we went on a ghost tour, so we basically had, like, one of our first dates in a graveyard,” Cassidy continued.
“I missed the part where he ended up extending his flight by one more day, sorry. Anyways, so he extended his flight and then he ended up extending it again the next day so he ended up in staying in Charleston for three days past his, like, original flight. I guess he must have really liked Charleston. And that’s pretty much the story of how we met.”
Two months after they began dating, the couple stepped out together on the red carpet for the first time when they attended the premiere of All of Those Voices, Payne’s former bandmate Louis Tomlinson’s documentary.
Pablo Policicchio, a spokesperson for the Security Ministry of Buenos Aires municipality, told The Associated Press in a statement that Payne “had thrown himself from the balcony of his room.” Policicchio added that police were sent to the hotel to respond to a call about an “aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”
Payne rose to fame as part of the globally successful boy band One Direction, alongside Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Tomlinson and Horan. The group was formed on the British talent show The X Factor in 2010.
After One Direction went on hiatus in 2016, Payne pursued a solo career, releasing songs such as “Strip That Down” and “Bedroom Floor.” He had a 7-year-old son, Bear Grey Payne, from his previous relationship with singer Cheryl, who was known as Cheryl Cole while in the band Girls Aloud.
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