The entertainment industry was left devastated on Wednesday when it was announced Liam Payne had tragically died. Now, a guest staying at the same hotel as him has revealed what may have been his final words.
Payne, who had only recently turned 31, fell to his death from his third-storey room at the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires just seven minutes after concerned hotel staff requested ‘urgent’ assistance from police.
While it remains unclear what occurred in the minutes leading up to his death (despite another hotel guest saying that Payne was seen ‘passed out and convulsing’ in the lobby before he died) 28-year-old woman has revealed she had a 30-minute exchange with the father of one soon before his death, in which he made a heartbreaking admission.
The IT consultant from Washington DC, known only as Rebecca, not her real name, was staying in the same hotel as Payne and claims he told her: ‘I used to be in a boy band – that’s why I’m so f**ked up’.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Rebecca, one of the last people to speak to Payne, said the popstar displayed ‘disturbing and weird behaviour’ during their interaction, which left her ‘shaken’.
Claiming he threw his laptop on the floor, she alleged he also grabbed another woman by the throat in the hotel lift and pretended to choke her.
Rebecca also claimed the singer, who police believe was alone at the time of his death, had an ‘entourage’ with him during their half an hour conversation, which included two women and a British man.
Recalling her exchange with Payne at 4.26pm (8.26pm UK time) on Wednesday, 36 minutes before emergency services were called, Rebecca told the news outlet that she was waiting in the hotel lobby with her friend and noticed staff were ‘on edge’.
Payne was due to check out of the hotel on Wednesday morning, and Rebecca’s friend was set to get his room.
She continued to say that while they knew who Payne was, they weren’t ‘bothered’, suggesting that he was ‘desperate’ to be noticed.
The group, who were waiting for the lift to arrive, were then invited by Payne to ‘get in’ with him and his group. The star allegedly said ‘I love a cuddle,’ but Rebecca said she and her friends chose to wait for the next one.
Other women in the lobby, however, reportedly joined the star: ‘And then he grabs a girl who I think was with him and starts fake choking her, only lightly, but the others thought it was really disturbing.’
Ten minutes later, Rebecca said Payne arrived back in the lobby and, this time, had his laptop with him. She claimed he lay on one of the lobby couches and began looking through his emails, noting that he was using the accessibility feature often used by visually impaired individuals.
Rebecca said she assumed he was using the setting for ‘attention’.
‘Then he opened his emails and saw one which obviously upset him. Suddenly he took the computer, shouted, ‘f**k this s**t, mate!’ and started bashing the computer on the ground.’
Staff were reportedly ‘really shocked’ by the star’s alleged outburst, which was ‘so out of place’ in the four-star hotel.
Rebecca said after noticing Payne’s upset, she approached him and asked if he was okay: ‘But he just kind of grunted. Then he said: “I used to be in a boyband. That’s why I’m so f**ked up.”‘
‘I couldn’t believe he’d just come out and said something like that. There was a lot more swearing and he took the laptop over and went to get back in the lift.’
Rebecca said that when Payne left the lobby, the man who appeared to be part of his entourage and believed to be called Roger apologised to her, stating that the star ‘gets so high sometimes’.
Despite Roger’s comments, she claims hotel staff were ‘freaking out’ and ‘watching him [Payne] really nervously’. Rebecca also noticed a member of staff was speaking to someone on the phone, likely emergency services.
‘I’ve never taken cocaine, but he was behaving exactly as I’d imagine someone would on the drug – he wasn’t focusing, and his pupils were dilated, and he was behaving in aggressive way – though not to anyone in particular,’ she said.
Payne returned to the lobby soon after the alleged outburst, and Rebecca claimed he ‘fell flat on his face.’ Roger and the hotel staff then attempted to help him back to his room.
While it’s unclear why Payne returned to the lobby so many times, Rebecca said she thinks he may have had plans to meet a drug dealer.
The woman said that not long after she last saw the singer, police arrived, and staff began frantically running around. She said it was only then that they understood the situation had taken a more serious turn.
‘Some of my friends had seen him falling, it was awful, and at first they thought he might have just injured himself, but then we saw the body out in the courtyard, and later they brought him out on a stretcher, it was all so horrible.’
In the hours that followed, Rebecca and her friends decided to stay at another hotel in part due to Payne’s death, but also as fans gathering outside were playing his music all night.
She claimed one even attempted to communicate with the late star through an Ouija board.
It comes after an autopsy confirmed yesterday that Payne died from multiple injuries sustained in his fall that led to ‘internal and external haemorrhaging’ after falling from his third-story hotel room balcony.
The Little Things hitmaker was a beloved UK musician after shooting to fame alongside his former One Direction bandmates — Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, and Harry Styles — on X Factor in 2014.
The group released a heartbreaking joint statement yesterday, and Malik, Tomlinson, and Styles also shared individual tributes dedicated to their ‘brother’.
Payne leaves behind his son, Bear, seven, who he shares with Cheryl Cole, his parents, Geoff and Karen Payne and his girlfriend, Kate Cassidy.