The private funeral of British singer Liam Payne, who died in October at the age of 31 in Buenos Aires, took place on Wednesday November 20 in Amersham, near London, in the presence of relatives of the deceased and his former boy band partners One Direction.
Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson were among dozens of people to attend the midday ceremony at the medieval St Mary's Church, decorated with flowers and candles. The singer's coffin arrived in a white carriage decorated with colorful flower wreaths forming the words “son” and “dad”.
The coffin was followed by the singer's parents, his two sisters and his girlfriend, the American influencer Kate Cassidy. His former partner Cheryl Tweedy, singer of the British group Girls Aloud with whom he had a son, Bear, aged 7, was also present.
Simon Cowell, the singer's mentor on the show The X Factorwho revealed the boy band in 2010, as well as host and comedian James Corden, also attended the funeral. Some residents and fans, kept apart behind a cordon, had traveled to pay a final tribute to the One Direction singer, who lived nearby.
Liam Payne died on October 16 after falling from the balcony of his hotel room in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He died of “multiple traumas“and a”internal and external bleeding“.
The Argentine prosecutor's office revealed that the artist had consumed alcohol, cocaine and antidepressants before his death. Three people were charged with supplying him with drugs.
In a 2023 video posted on his YouTube account, Liam Payne admitted to having been admitted to a rehab center for his alcoholism: “I sort of became someone I didn't really recognize anymore. And I'm sure you don't recognize it either”he said then.
His death shocked his fans around the world. Many tributes took place, including one in London on October 20 which brought together thousands of people, singing along to One Direction songs. In Paris, fans also paid tribute to him in the Tuileries garden, creating a “memorial” with bouquets of flowers and candles around a photo of the singer.
One Direction, who was one of the most lucrative boy bands in the world, released their fifth and final studio album in 2016, Made in the A.M. The same year, the group announced a break, never formalized as a separation.
The members of the boy band then began solo careers with varying degrees of success. Liam Payne released his first album, LP1in 2019. Last year he announced that he was working on a second album and released a new single in March 2024.
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