Following the tragic death of One Direction member Liam Payne, fans started to turn their attention towards the people the star had spent his last moments with. This includes his previous girlfriend, 25-year-old influencer Kate Cassidy, who travelled to Argentina with him, where he then suffered a fatal fall from his hotel room’s balcony. A video that the content creator recently posted to her TikTok page provided the answers many fans had been hoping for about why Payne spent the last few days of his life alone.
Cassidy aside, there have also been a lot of conversations circulating online regarding Payne’s ex-finacée Maya Henry, who had garnered a lot of attention recently for speaking out about the former One Direction member’s obsessive behaviour. We’ll delve into both of these stories throughout the article.
Filming herself on her way home to Miami, Florida, the influencer noted: “I was so ready to leave. Honestly, I love South America but I hate staying in one place for too long. And we were supposed to be there for, like, five days. It turned into two weeks and I was just like ‘I need to go home’.”
@kateecass soooo happpiii to b back in sunshine state
♬ original sound - nicole
The couple had previously been photographed attending fellow One Direction alum Niall Horan’s concert on 2 October at Movistar Arena in Buenos Aires. Cassidy shared pictures of the event, alongside footage of them eating out, getting ready for the night, sightseeing and horseback riding in Argentina.
@kateecass 😋😋😋
♬ original sound - Kateecass
@kateecass I saw this audio and immediately thought payne 😂
♬ I am not in pain - Pasha Grozdov
Cassidy and Payne had been in a public relationship for two years before the performer passed away. The pair frequently posted each other on social media throughout their relationship.
Most recently, the influencer shared a picture of them from their September trip to Greece, while Payne took to his Instagram, hours before his death, to post a mirror selfie with Cassidy from their Argentina trip.
@kateecass Such a fun show (:
♬ Must Be Love - Niall Horan
After Cassidy left, the singer died in a fall from a hotel balcony, with an autopsy now confirming that his death was caused by multiple “internal and external” haemorrhages as well as traumatic injuries, according to the report seen by multiple outlets.
As of Friday 18 October 2024, Cassidy has not released a statement on her late boyfriend’s passing.
Meanwhile, fans also started to direct attention towards Payne’s older relationships, particularly the one with Maya Henry, which had recently been shrouded in controversy and backlash amid allegations of abuse.
The 23-year-old model, actor and content creator was reportedly taking legal action against her former boyfriend, who she was romantically involved with from 2018 to their 2022 split.
In now viral videos, the model precisely detailed the abuse she allegedly encountered while involved with Payne.
Taking to TikTok on 6 October 2024, the influencer claimed: “Ever since we broke up, he will blow up my phone. It’s always from different phone numbers too, so I never know where it’s going to come from. He will create new iCloud accounts to iMessage me. It’s always a damn new iCloud account. Each time I see a new one pop up on my phone, I’m like, ‘Oh, here we go again’.”
In a statement to The Sun, a spokesperson for Henry confirmed that she “issued a cease and desist last week” to Payne after “new and concerning information” came to light.
“He would always message me ever since we broke up [saying], ‘Oh, I’m not well’,” she claimed. “He would always play with death and be like, ‘Well, I’m going to die. I’m not doing well’,” she recounted on The Internet is Dead podcast.
Since the news of Payne’s passing was announced, netizens started to call attention to an egregious amount of verbal abuse that had been launched at Henry in response to her allegations.
Many fans seemed to believe that her recent actions against Payne might have motivated him to commit suicide or went so far as to propose that the model might have murdered him.
Of course, these claims are completely unsubstantiated and cloud Payne’s untimely in unnecessary conspiracies and fabricated drama that will undoubtedly be quite hurtful to his family and close friends.
Henry hasn’t directly commented on Payne’s passing yet.