{"id":383360,"date":"2026-04-05T15:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T15:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/383360\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T15:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T15:34:09","slug":"i-was-just-in-pure-shock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/383360\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I was just in pure shock’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Niall Horan has opened up how he dealt with the death of his former One Direction band mate Liam Payne, saying “I was just in pure shock”.<\/p>\n

Appearing on Saturday night’s Tommy Tiernan Show on RT\u00c9 One, the 32-year-old singer from Mullingar recalled the day Payne fell to his death a hotel in Buenos Ares in October 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Horan spoke about how he had been in the Argentinian city on tour and met Payne a fortnight before his death. Payne also attended Horan\u2019s show and visited his dressing room that evening.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nLiam Payne<\/p>\n

On his return home, Horan received the news that his band mate had died in tragic circumstances.<\/p>\n

“I was just in pure shock,” Horan said, “And I knew he\u2019d had a couple of issues, but because I wasn\u2019t around him like I was in previous years, all the time, I didn\u2019t realise to what extent or anything like that.<\/p>\n

“I knew there was some stuff going on but I wasn\u2019t aware of the depth. And then you go through the stages of grief that I probably haven\u2019t touched the sides on yet. You know, I grew up with this fella, and all of a sudden it\u2019s no more.”<\/p>\n

He added, “It\u2019s such a strange thing you go through. Like, what could I have done if I\u2019d known more? Should I have dug more into it? I just kept thinking about his little son and things like that.”<\/p>\n

Horan, who is about to release his new album, Dinner Party, also spoke about how he became part of One Direction when he was aged 16 after they were formed on X-Factor in 2010.<\/p>\n

\n

“Then that was basically it. I barely came home after that,” he said.<\/p>\n

The band went on hiatus in 2016 and all five members went on to pursue solo careers, with Horan having released three albums to date.<\/p>\n

\"Niall<\/p>\n

He also said that he loves waving the flag for Ireland with his career.<\/p>\n

Horan, who also owns a golf management company, said “things are just in a nice little spot”.<\/p>\n

Speaking about his hometown of Mullingar, he added, “I think I\u2019d be very lucky to feel that the town has a sense of pride over me and nearly an ownership over men you know \u2013 ah, that\u2019s a great feeling. I just love that, love that town, the people in it, the characters.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s the kind of place you leave and then you just slot back into, like this country in general to be honest. You travel all over this place and it just feels like one big pat on the back.”<\/p>\n

Watch The Tommy Tiernan Show on the RT\u00c9 Player<\/a><\/p>\n

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please see RT\u00c9’s list of helplines<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Niall Horan has opened up how he dealt with the death of his former One Direction band mate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-383360","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}