Louis Tomlinson recalls moment Niall Horan told him of Liam Payne's shock death
9 October 2025, 14:32
One Direction star Louis Tomlinson has revealed Niall Horan informed him of Liam Payne's death.
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Louis Tomlinson has revealed how he found out about his One Direction bandmate Liam Payne had passed away last year.
The world was left in shock on October 16th 2024 when it was announced 31-year-old Liam had died whilst on holiday in Argentina, with fans and Liam's musical peers paying tribute to the young star shortly after.
Now Liam's former bandmate Louis has opened up about the moment he was told of his friend's death, revealing it was Niall Horan who delivered the terrible news.
Speaking to Steven Bartlett on The Diary Of A CEO podcast, Louis began: "I was in the car in LA and I just dropped my son Freddie off for school and I was just pulling up back home."
He continued: "I actually found out through Niall, and he told me and yeah, he said something like, 'Lads have you seen the news', and I think I knew what he meant.
"I had the same feeling that I had with Félicité and I think anyone has this when they're around someone who's struggling—my 150 percent wasn't nearly enough."
He also stated that Liam was "definitely struggling at that time in his life", adding: "And that's when it's my own arrogance thinking that I could have helped really, because it was so much deeper than what I could have done for him."
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Louis then spoke about a possible One Direction reunion with Harry Styles, Zayn Malik and Niall, stating: "Never say never, right, but I'm just not sure it would be right to him [Liam]."
He continued: "Say for the sake of argument, 25 year's time, it's like a f****** Oasis thing, they offer us an arm and a leg, and they're like, 'Come back and do this many shows'. I don't know. It's just completely put a pin in all of that.
"And the irony is, there was no one campaigning for One Direction to get back more than Liam. I would say I came in a close second. There is now only three other people on the planet that will deeply understand my professional journey."
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The star then went on to speak about the similarities he found between Liam's death and the passing of his sister Félicité in 2019 from an accidental overdose.
Louis confessed:"I couldn't believe how deeply unlucky we had been as a family. I felt angry at life on behalf of my family, it did feel incredibly unfair.
"That is something interesting about grief just how different each thing feels. It hit me a different way, it was sudden and again one of the most challenging days of my life.
"I was sat in my house in London and everything was fine, I was a bit worried, I had been worried about her for months prior, I was sat in my front room and the doorbell rang at 1am or midnight. I had this feeling over me straight away and I knew it was bad. I opened the gates and I saw the police car and the policeman told me she had passed away."
Louis continued: "I was just like, 'Ok, alright'. I can't tell you why it was just me my best friend and my ex girlfriend at the time and it wasn't a pride thing, I was not only in denial I didn't even commute with it. I told the people I was with and they started crying and then my brain started catching up with me."
He concluded: "To lose my sister how we did, I felt utterly guilty, powerless and like I'd let my mum down."
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