Liam Payne, a former member of the popular boy band One Direction has passed away after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, according to local police. Payne, who was 31, leaves behind his seven-year-old son, Bear.
Payne first shocked British audiences as a young 14-year-old during his audition for The X Factor in 2008, where he sang Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon.”
Payne became a global sensation as part of One Direction, the extremely popular boyband that was made popular on the British version of the X Factor in 2010. The group, which included Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik, announced an “indefinite hiatus” in 2016.
XFM News spoke to One Direction fans in London to see what they were feeling after the devastating news.
One person said “I thought it was like a joke for me because I’m a big fan of him since 2011 and up until now even though they’re already broken up it is really raw and it’s really unfortunate to hear that he has passed.”
Another person even told XFM News that she was “feeling very heartbroken. I can’t believe it’s real. I’m honestly really shocked. I did not expect that he was going to pass away so soon.”
“Liam Payne is gone but not forgotten”- One Direction super fan
The Sudden death of the pop star shocked and has touched many.