Liam Payne’s family and his One Direction bandmates mourn singer at private funeral
Liam Payne’s former bandmates, family members and friends gathered Wednesday in England for the late singer’s funeral, just over a month after he died from a fall in Buenos Aires.
One Direction alumni Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan attended the private service at St. Mary’s Church in Amersham, a small town northwest of London. “X Factor” judges Simon Cowell and singer Cheryl Cole, Payne’s ex-fiancée with whom he shared a young son, were also in attendance, as was girlfriend Kate Cassidy, who was in Argentina with Payne before he died.
The 12th century stone brick church was decorated with white roses and candles. The “Strip That Down” singer’s dark blue casket arrived at the church in a white horse-drawn hearse carrying floral arrangements spelling the words “son” and “daddy,” the BBC said. Payne, who was 31 when he died, lived in the nearby village of Chalfont St. Giles.
The late singer’s mother wept and his father Geoff Payne — who flew to Argentina to collect the singer’s body — stood stoically as they watched the flower-covered casket go into the church, CNN reported.
In Liam Payne’s words and interviews with friends and collaborators, the late pop star emerges as a talent struggling with addiction in the spotlight.
Four pallbearers carried the coffin from the church after the funeral and they were followed by Payne’s parents and Cole. Cole’s fellow Girls Aloud bandmates Kimberley Walsh and Nicola Roberts also attended the service, along with former talk show host James Corden, soccer star Robbie Keane and other British TV personalities.
Although some fans and locals quietly lined the street during the service, One Direction’s legion of fans did not converge on the small town. The Associated Press reported that the funeral location was not made public in advance to prevent a large crowd from gathering. Likewise, members of the massive 1D group on Reddit reminded members that “memorials are for fans, funerals are for family” and discouraged them from approaching the pop stars and mourners.
Styles, Tomlinson, Horan and Malik each publicly paid tribute to their “brother” in social media posts in the days immediately following his death.
One Direction’s surviving members Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Harry Styles reacted Thursday in a joint statement to Liam Payne’s death.
Payne died Oct. 16 after falling from a balcony at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires. Argentine officials determined that the singer died from multiple traumas and internal and external bleeding caused by the fall. He “did not adopt a reflexive posture to protect himself and ... he may have fallen in a state of semi- or total unconsciousness,” officials said. The pop star, who had been in South America for a Horan concert, had traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his system when he died.
In a preliminary autopsy shared a day after the singer’s death, Argentine officials said authorities found substances in the singer’s hotel room that appeared to be drugs in addition to evidence of consumption of alcohol and narcotics.
Three suspects are facing charges for their alleged involvement in the pop star’s sudden demise. One is a person close to Payne who frequently visited him at the hotel, another is a hotel employee who allegedly provided Payne with cocaine during his stay, and the third is a suspected narcotics supplier who had already been accused of dealing drugs in separate incidents. The charges include abandonment of a person followed by death, and supply and facilitation of narcotics.
More details about Liam Payne’s death emerge: Argentine officials have charged three suspects in connection with the pop star’s sudden demise.
The “X Factor” alum, who like his former bandmates pursued a solo musical career after One Direction disbanded in 2015, was set to return to television as a celebrity mentor for the Netflix competition series “Building the Band” alongside “X Factor” judge Nicole Scherzinger, Destiny’s Child alum Kelly Rowland and host AJ McLean of the Backstreet Boys. Netflix has not yet announced how or if the show will proceed in the wake of Payne’s death.
Payne’s collaborator, music producer Sam Pounds, also walked back the release of the singer’s posthumous single “Do No Wrong” amid fan outcry.
Times staff writers Alexandra Del Rosario and Angie Orellana Hernandez contributed to this report.
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