{"id":88797,"date":"2025-10-19T21:46:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T21:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/88797\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T21:46:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T21:46:10","slug":"louis-tomlinson-says-he-will-never-really-accept-one-direction-bandmate-liam-paynes-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/88797\/","title":{"rendered":"Louis Tomlinson Says He Will \u2018Never Really Accept\u2019 One Direction Bandmate Liam Payne\u2019s Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

Louis Tomlinson<\/a> is reflecting on the first anniversary of his One Direction bandmate Liam Payne\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Liam\u2019s death] is something I\u2019ll never really accept. I don\u2019t think,\u201d Tomlinson, 33, admitted in an interview with The Independent<\/a> published on Saturday, October 18.<\/p>\n

The \u201cJust Hold On\u201d singer has faced tragedy throughout his life, as his mother, Johannah Deakin, succumbed to leukemia at age 43 in 2016 and his sister Felicite died at age 18 in 2019. Then, in October 2024, Payne died from injuries sustained when he fell from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina.<\/p>\n

\u201cI naively thought that, at this point, I\u2019d unfortunately be a little bit more well versed with grief than other people my age,\u201d Tomlinson admitted. \u201cI thought that might mean something, but it didn\u2019t at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson\u2019s Friendship Through the Years: \u2018My Friend and Brother\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

He acknowledged that Payne was \u201cdefinitely\u201d the de facto leader of the band when they were formed on The X Factor in the U.K. in 2010. (One Direction consisted of Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, Payne and Tomlinson.) According to Tomlinson, a leadership role was thrust on Payne since he had much more performing experience than the other members of the band.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely a role that was assigned to him,\u201d Tomlinson said. \u201cThat is the truth. \u2026 He\u2019d already played at half time [at major soccer games], we\u2019d done s****y school shows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tomlinson reflected on sharing \u201cso many\u201d great times with his bandmate prior to his untimely death, going on to point out that Payne was always the first to support other One Direction members\u2019 side or solo projects.<\/p>\n

Payne\u2019s November 2024 funeral in Amersham, England, was the first time all of the surviving members of One Direction reunited since Malik, 32, left the band in March 2015. Tomlinson confirmed that their friend\u2019s death \u201cdefinitely\u201d brought him closer to the other 1D members, though he admitted they\u2019ve had trouble scheduling any further meet-ups.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best kind of friends are the ones where, when you eventually do meet up, it\u2019s like no time has passed,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s also just amazing to see everyone doing so well in their own right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GettyImages-512074136<\/p>\n

Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson in February 2016. Dave J Hogan\/Dave J Hogan\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Tomlinson will be spending more time with Malik soon, since they have signed up<\/a> to star in a three-part Netflix documentary that sees them travel the U.S. as they reflect on fatherhood and Payne\u2019s death. (Tomlinson shares a son, Freddie Reign, with former partner Briana Jungwirth while Payne and ex-girlfriend Gigi Hadid share daughter Khai.)<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Tomlinson recently revealed on the \u201cDiary of a CEO\u201d podcast that Payne\u2019s death put a stop to any serious discussions of a One Direction reunion tour<\/a> for the time being.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever say never, right, but I\u2019m just not sure it would be right to [Liam],\u201d he explained. \u201cSay for the sake of argument, 25 year\u2019s time, it\u2019s like a f***ing Oasis thing, [and] they offer us an arm and a leg, and they\u2019re like, \u2018Come back and do this many shows.\u2019 I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inside Liam Payne\u2019s Bond With His Former One Direction Members<\/a><\/p>\n

He added, \u201c[Liam\u2019s death] just completely put a pin in all of that. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Us Weekly exclusively reported<\/a> that a group of One Direction fans held a vigil for Payne in Buenos Aires on the first anniversary of his death on October 16. Fans placed flowers, signs and candles at a makeshift shrine at the hotel where Payne died and shared their favorite memories of the group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Louis Tomlinson is reflecting on the first anniversary of his One Direction bandmate Liam Payne\u2019s death. \u201c[Liam\u2019s death]…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,67076,45110,157,111,139,69,67077,67079,67078],"class_list":{"0":"post-88797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-liam-payne","10":"tag-louis-tomlinson","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-one-direction","16":"tag-untimely-death","17":"tag-zayn-malik"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88797","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=88797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}