Payne had been open about his struggles with addiction in the past, admitting that he was addicted to “pills and booze” at the height of his fame with One Direction.

“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 mini-bar,” he said in a 2021 interview on the The Diary of a CEO podcast. “So at a certain point I thought, I’m just going to have a party-for-one and that seemed to carry on for many years of my life. Then you look back at how long you’ve been drinking and you’re like, ‘Jesus Christ, that’s a long time.’”

In May 2023, Payne said he was 100 days sober after a stay in rehab and felt “amazing.”

Fans mourn: tributes to Liam Payne

The news of Liam Payne’s tragic death at such a young age has shocked and saddened fans around the world, as well as his peers in the music industry.

Payne shot to worldwide fame as a member of pop group One Direction, one of the most successful boy bands in history. The group, consisting of Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, and Zayn Malik, formed in 2010 and competed on The X Factor before being signed by Simon Cowell’s record label.

One Direction’s first four albums debuted at number one on the Billboard US charts, a first for any band, and produced hit singles including “What Makes You Beautiful,” Story of My Life” and “Live While We’re Young.”

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