{"id":469870,"date":"2026-05-31T23:51:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T23:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/469870\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T23:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T23:51:14","slug":"niall-horan-recalls-his-final-encounter-with-liam-payne-before-one-direction-stars-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/469870\/","title":{"rendered":"Niall Horan recalls his final encounter with Liam Payne before One Direction star\u2019s death"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Niall Horan<\/a> has said he was in denial when he heard the news of Liam Payne<\/a>\u2019s death. <\/p>\n

Payne died in October 2024<\/a> after falling from a third-story hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was 31 years old. <\/p>\n

In a new interview with The Times<\/a>, Horan, 32, said he was with his One Direction<\/a> bandmate in Argentina just weeks before his death. \u201cI\u2019m glad of that, it means my last memory of him was happy,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Payne had flown in to Argentina to see Horan perform on tour, with a video of the moment \u2013 in which Payne is seen happily supporting his former bandmate \u2013 circulating online. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt still feels surreal,\u201d continued Horan. \u201cOn day one I was, like, \u2018Nah, it didn\u2019t happen.\u2019 Our friendship was a bond that was there forever even if we hadn\u2019t seen each other for a while and it\u2019s wild that one day, like the flick of a switch, he\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horan said that \u201call our families\u201d have remained in touch since Payne\u2019s death two years ago, adding that there is a \u201clight and shade\u201d to his grief.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I think of Liam\u2019s passing, there is sadness, but it also makes me laugh and smirk because of the memories we had,\u201d Horan said. \u201cI\u2019ll go to places and think of something stupid in a hotel or something random that makes me laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cWe always had good fun in Australia because we were able to get out and go to the beach. Liam wasn\u2019t too bad at surfing. I can barely swim.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"(l(l to r) Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles pictured during an interview on Capital Breakfast with Dave Berry and Lisa Snowdon in 2012 (Yui Mok) (PA Wire)<\/p>\n

The Irish singer has dedicated one of the tracks \u2013 titled \u201cEnd of an Era\u201d \u2013 on his forthcoming solo album to his late bandmate. \u201cI think it\u2019s his type of song,\u201d he replied when asked what he thinks Payne would make of it. \u201cHe liked Coldplay. He loved songs like \u2018You & I\u2019 by One Direction, songs that went somewhere.\u201d <\/p>\n

Speaking about his bandmate Louis Tomlinson<\/a>\u2019s fellow tribute to Payne, titled \u201cDark to Light\u201d, Horan said: \u201cWe have this shared thing, but so do the fans, they had a loss too.\u201d <\/p>\n

Together with Payne, Tomlinson, Harry Styles, and Zayn Malik, Horan shot to fame when One Direction was formed on The X Factor in 2010. The five-piece went on to achieve staggering international success with hit songs such as \u201cWhat Makes You Beautiful\u201d (2011) and \u201cNight Changes\u201d (2014). <\/p>\n

Speaking to The Independent in October last year<\/a>, Tomlinson echoed the same sentiments of disbelief at hearing news of Payne\u2019s death. \u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019ll never really accept, I don\u2019t think,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Payne\u2019s funeral was held in Amersham, Buckingham in November 2024, and was attended by his family, friends and former bandmates. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":["post-469870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}