{"id":313683,"date":"2026-03-05T04:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T04:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/313683\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T04:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T04:30:09","slug":"harry-styles-breaks-silence-over-how-one-direction-bandmate-liam-paynes-death-changed-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/313683\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Styles breaks silence over how One Direction bandmate Liam Payne\u2019s death changed him"},"content":{"rendered":"

The group formed as part of the X Factor television series in 2010. They went on to become one of pop\u2019s best-selling boy bands before going on an indefinite hiatus in 2016.<\/p>\n

\"HarryHarry Styles talking to Zane Lowe about his upcoming album Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. Photo \/ Harry Styles and Apple Music<\/p>\n

Payne, 31, died in October 2024 after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina.<\/p>\n

Police were called after the hotel reported an \u201caggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol\u201d, reported the Associated Press. <\/p>\n

Minutes before emergency services arrived, Payne fell to his death.<\/p>\n

The final toxicology test said he had \u201calcohol, cocaine and prescription antidepressants\u201d in his system. <\/p>\n

\"LiamLiam Payne performs as part of One Direction at the Apple Music Festival in London in 2015. Photo \/ Christie Goodwin<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to lose any friend. But it\u2019s so difficult to lose a friend who is so like you in so many ways,\u201d said Styles, 32.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw someone with the kindest heart who just wanted to be great.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was still processing the death but knew there was a \u201cdesire from other people\u201d for him to share his emotions publicly.<\/p>\n

\u201cFull transparency, it\u2019s like something that I \u2014 even the idea of talking about it feels like I struggle with that a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

He found it difficult to deal with the strangeness of grieving in public and how other people \u201ckind of own part of your grief\u201d.<\/p>\n

The interview comes before tomorrow\u2019s release of Styles\u2019 highly anticipated album, Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally. <\/p>\n

He had not released any music for almost four years before Aperture, the lead single for the album, came out in January.<\/p>\n

He said taking a break was important so he could decide whether or not music had become a job or was still a passion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to just roll straight into another process of making something, and I thought it was time to just, honestly, like, make sure I still loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The group formed as part of the X Factor television series in 2010. They went on to become…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[170407,38501,6186,634,31406,156,2740,9859,16718,221,20409,424,1362,111,139,69,5270,1523,62589,53100,170408,312,11165,18923],"class_list":["post-313683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-bandmate","tag-breaks","tag-changed","tag-death","tag-direction","tag-entertainment","tag-former","tag-harry","tag-him","tag-how","tag-liam","tag-life","tag-made","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-one","tag-over","tag-payne","tag-paynes","tag-reassess","tag-says","tag-silence","tag-styles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}