All the Times Liam Payne Opened Up About His Mental Health Amid Death By Suicide

Just hours after TMZ learned that the singer, who came to fame during his time with the boy band, One Directiondied after falling from his fourth-floor balcony at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, fans began looking for answers.

On Thursday, TMZ called his death an “apparent suicide” in a report noting that a police official, communications director for the Buenos Aires Security Ministry Pablo Policicchio — the organization responsible for the city’s security — told the Associated Press that Payne “had jumped from the balcony of his room.”

According to the preliminary autopsy, per TMZ, the fall resulted in multiple injuries, including “internal and external hemorrhage.” The toxicology report is still pending.

Payne had been in Argentina earlier this month at a concert for his former bandmate, Niall Horanand apparently appeared to be enjoying his time in the South American country with girlfriend Kate Cassidy.

It wasn’t until after she’d returned to the states, just days before his death, that sources reportedly told TMZ that he was acting “erratic” in the hotel lobby earlier in the day, and smashed his laptop.

Meanwhile, the outlet also shared pictures of the chaos left behind inside his room, including a smashed TV and broken items on the floor.

The 31-year-old musicians’ mental health struggles were no secret, with Payne opening up about both his well-being and his battle with drugs and alcohol several times over the years.

In July 2023, Payne took to social media to discuss his difficulty with staying sober in what he describes as “manic” moments.

“So, I mean, I’ve filmed a bunch of these over time and deleted them but I don’t know if this is the right time…,” he began in the video.

“I mentioned I’ve been diagnosed with a couple of conditions. Not to go too much into detail, but one of them that I have, basically, there are a lot of manic things in my life which you guys saw,” Payne continued . “But, the other side of it, that kind of feels like when I would lose my sobriety, in these moments that I was super low. I kind of felt like that today.”

He went on to detail the people who look after him and have helped him “identify” the moments when he’s not feeling great.

“Luckily, I’ve got some amazing people around me that look after me but I’m sure they can see it in me too that I’m just not really here,” the boy band star concluded. “I just wanted to put this out here anyway, because I know there are probably a few people who have the same thing, maybe you don’t even know it sometimes. But, just so you know, you’re not the only one .”

After Payne trashed One Direction and claimed the group was built around him following an appearance on Logan Pauls “Impaulsive” podcast, Payne issued a statement setting the record straight.

Payne took to social media to inform fans that “it got quite dark” for him and he didn’t leave the house for three months, following the backlash from the explosive interview.

Payne said he was watching the World Cup and things weren’t going well for his team, so he shared a short clip of himself, captioning it, “Patiently waiting for the blame and ‘I blocked Liam’ trend on Twitter if England loses. “

He then went deep when one fan tweeted-shared his video and wrote that she hated that she laughed, adding, “u won liam payne.” He thanked her for that and then opened up about how hard it’s been for him seeing his fans turn like they did.

“You guys know I’m sorry about all that stuff,” he wrote overtop an image of himself. “I love my boys not sure what was going on with me other than I had a problem with me and I took it out on everyone else.”

He went on to note, “Never had a bigger chip on my shoulder and I’m really glad to lose it.” He concluded with hopes that his fans could forgive him, while acknowledging that he has been able to laugh at the jokes and memes made about it, urging them to “keep em coming.”

In the immediate aftermath of his comments, Payne attempted to express his regrets for what he’d said about Zayn, saying he maybe “didn’t articulate myself as well as I could have.”

The topic had come up when Paul asked about a Twitter feud between Zayn, Gigi Hadid and Logan’s brother Jake that then referenced Zayn’s alleged altercation with Yolanda Hadid.

“Listen, I don’t agree with any of his actions. I can’t commend some of the things that he’s done. I can’t be on his side for that,” Liam said. “What I can say is I understand and your only hope is that at some point in their life, the person at the other end of the phone wants to receive the help that you’re willing to give them.”

As for Louis, Liam called him a “rowdy guy” and “wild,” which Liam said he wasn’t used to. He also claimed they “hated each other — like, come-to-blows hated each other.”

Without naming names, Liam further claimed that things did come to physicality with one of the guys, with one member allegedly throwing him against a wall backstage. “I said to him ‘If you don’t remove those hands there’s a high likelihood you’ll never use them again,'” Payne told Paul.

Back in 2021, Payne detailed his battle with depression and substance abuse disorder during the chaotic early days of One Direction.

“I was worried how far my rock bottom was going to be. Where’s rock bottom for me?” the singer said while appearing on the Diary of a CEO podcast. “And you would never have seen it. I’m very good at hiding it. No one would ever have seen it.”

Payne said the pressure and intense fan attention the band drew during their 2010-2016 run turned him into an “angry person” who turned to prescription pills and alcohol to deal with the unexpected global stardom.

When podcast host Stephen Bartlett asked if those dark thoughts included “suicidal ideation,” Payne confirmed that it did.

“Yeah. There is some stuff that I have definitely never, never spoken about. It was really, really, really severe. It was a problem,” he shared. “And it was only until I saw myself after that I was like, ‘Right, I need to fix myself.'”

Part of the problem during the 1D days was the intense security needed to keep Payne and bandmates Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik safe, which Payne said often involved locking them in their hotel rooms.

“As a teen, the one thing you need is freedom to make choices and freedom to do stuff. We were always locked into a room at night,” Payne added. “The problem was, in the band … the best way to secure us, because of how big we’d got, was just to lock us in our rooms. What’s in the room? A minibar. So at a certain point, I just thought, ‘Well, I’m going to have a party for one,’ and that just seemed to carry on throughout many years of my life.”

His battle with alcohol reared his head again during England’s COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, with Payne crediting some of his 1D bandmates for helping pull him out of the hole he was in at the time.

“I had a lovely phone call from Harry the other day,” Payne said at the time of Harry Styles, who he called a “lovely, lovely boy” whom he loves “to pieces.”

“He was checking in on me,” Payne shared. “It’s almost as if some people have got a sixth sense about when you’re going through something and want to check in.”

In an interview with Men’s Health Australia for their cover story in July 2019, the “Strip That Down” singer recalled some dark days as a member of the boy band, which he said were filled with alcohol abuse.

“When you’re doing hundreds and hundreds of (concerts) and it’s the same 22 songs at the same time every single day, even if you’re not happy, you’ve got to go out there,” Payne said.

“It’s almost like putting the Disney costume on before you step up on stage and underneath the Disney costume I was pissed quite a lot of the time because there was no other way to get your head around what was going on,” he continued. “I mean it was fun. We had an absolute blast but there were certain parts of it where it just got a little bit toxic.”

When asked if he ever felt in control during those times, Payne said, “No. Never.”

“I still struggle with it now,” he added. “I really struggle to say no because I don’t like to let people down. It’s in my nature.”

Payne, who was only 14 at the time he auditioned for The X Factorrecalled, “It literally was the perfect storm. There were so many scenarios that had to fall into line for that to happen. It’s not something that can easily be recreated or probably ever will be because of the way the Internet was kicking off, the way The X Factor kicked off. I just thought it was just dumb luck.”

He also spoke about how being in the band impacted his mental health.

“It’s difficult when you have the level of fame that we had in the band,” Payne said. “There have been a lot of people in trouble with mental health that aren’t really getting the help that they need, and I think that’s a bit of a problem in our industry.”

“It’s the same s–t that happens to everyone, that’s been happening since the ’70s,” he added. “You know what the traps are and if you are lucky enough, like me, to be able to get out of that scenario and back into a sense of normality, then you know it’s a bit different.”

TooFab has reached out to Payne’s team for comment.

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.