Inside Liam Payne's Very Tortured Life: How Singer Was Born 'Effectively Dead', Bullying Torment and His 'Feuds' With Leonardo DiCaprio and One Direction
Payne welcomed son Bear with then-girlfriend Cheryl Cole in March 2017.
Oct. 18 2024, Published 7:09 p.m. ET
From Liam Payne's frightening premature birth to his feuds with Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio and his One Direction bandmates, RadarOnline.com can reveal an inside look at the singer's tortured life before it ended in tragedy.
Payne died aged 31 on October 16 after falling from his third-floor hotel room balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he traveled to attend former bandmate Niall Horan's concert.
He was said to be acting erratic in the hotel lobby moments before his death – and his suite was in state of chaos, littered with aluminum foil and white power.
Payne was born three weeks premature and suffered from kidney issues as a child.
Before he became one of the most famous singers in the world, Payne battled serious medical issues as an infant.
He once said he was "born effectively dead" three weeks premature and unresponsive.
For the first four years of his life, he endured frequent illness and was in and out of the hospital undergoing testing. Doctors eventually discovered one of his kidneys was severely scarred and dysfunctional.
Payne shared: "I was always in hospital having tests done but they couldn't find out what was wrong. They discovered that one of my kidneys wasn't working properly and it had scarred.
"I had to have 32 injections in my arm in the morning and evening to try and make me better."
Payne was tapped to form X Factor boyband One Direction in 2010.
As a child he became heavily involved in sports and discovered his passion for entertaining, entering his first talent competition at age five, performing Robbie Williams' Let Me Entertain You.
Despite overcoming early childhood illness, Payne continued to face adversity in his youth.
He began a rigorous training schedule and took up boxing to learn how to defend himself against schoolyard bullies, whom he fought regularly and even faced expulsion as a result.
Payne's ex-fiancée later claimed bandmate Zayn Malik threw him against a wall during an argument.
A determined Payne signed up for talent competition show The X Factor at age 14 in 2008. After making it through the first few rounds, he was eliminated but judge Simon Cowell pursued him to reapply in two years.
Cowell kept Payne's talent in mind and recruited him to join X Factor boyband One Direction alongside Horan, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, and Louis Tomlinson.
As the band topped the charts, tension grew behind the scenes.
Payne recalled: "At the start we couldn't get past our own egos. Everybody had their own little thing – it was like having four older brothers."
In 2019, he told GQ: "There was a lot of stuff. I spent a lot of time drinking to escape the crazy world that I had created for myself.
"I was getting into really bad, bad situations. And I hit a peak moment where I knew the drinking was going to get me."
He eventually checked himself into a Louisiana-based rehab facility after hitting rock bottom and was sober from alcohol for a year.
Payne previously said he would leave his $70million fortune and many businesses to his son.
During a 2022 interview with YouTuber Logan Paul, Payne revealed one of his former bandmates slammed him "up a wall" during a heated argument.
He later said there were "many reasons why I dislike Zayn Malik".
Later, Payne's ex-fiancée Maya Henry claimed Malik was the one who threw him against a wall.
She said in a TikTok video: "OK, I see this all the time, everywhere. I've heard this insufferable story so many times, and he told me it was Zayn, so."
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From his teen years into adulthood, Payne struggled to cope with his fame, especially after the band broke up and his bandmates launched successful solo careers.
While reminiscing on his failed attempt to integrate with Hollywood A-listers, Payne recalled attending a star-studded party in Los Angeles.
Upon recognizing saw Sean 'Diddy' Combs, Jay-Z and DiCaprio at the party, Payne went up to introduce himself and was met with painful sneers from the megastars.
He said: "As I shook Diddy's hand he just chuckled, the most evil laugh I've ever heard."
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