R.I.P. One Direction's Liam Payne

Liam Payne has died. According to a report from TMZ, the former One Direction star fell from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Wednesday evening, and was found dead on the scene. Payne, who was a member of the massively successful British music group from its formation in 2010, through its “indefinite hiatus” in 2016—and who also had a massively successful solo career, selling millions of singles under his own name—had reportedly been demonstrating “erratic” behavior in the hours before his fall. Payne was 31.

Payne originally found fame on British reality TV series The X Factor, where, after an initial cut in 2008, he was encouraged to return a few years later. When he did, he was placed into a group with Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik; to say that the newly formed band “succeeded” would be a ridiculous understatement. The quintet would eventually become one of the highest-selling music groups of all time, touring across the planet, and releasing five studio albums that converted hordes of young listeners into obsessive “1D” fans.

When fractures began forming in One Direction, Payne was tapped to take over many of the vocals of the departing Malik, who left the group in 2015; he was also a co-credited songwriter on many of the band’s tracks. After the remaining members of the group announced their hiatus the following year, Payne embarked on a career as both a solo artist and a producer, releasing a solo album, LP1, an eclectic mix of various genres that was dinged by critics for lacking a strong focus or identity, in 2019.

Payne had been open, in the past, about issues with alcohol and substance abuse, including a 2022 interview where he appeared intoxicated on camera. He announced in 2023 that he was now sober, having entered rehab in the aftermath of that conversation. Per ABC News, his death has been confirmed by Argentina state police.