A moving tribute to Liam Payne will today be seen by hundreds of thousands of people after being posted in the London Underground. Poets from the All on the Board group said he would be ‘forever loved’ in a message commuters have seen this morning.
The group often post messages on the Underground information boards – often poems or funny notices. Yet today’s is a heartbreaking note that huge numbers are likely to see, given around five million Tube journeys take place every day.
Titled Liam Payne, 1993 – 2024, the message says: “Rest in peace Liam Payne. You will be forever loved, always missed and never forgotten. Sending so much love to those who loved you, your family, your friends, your One Direction brothers and the Directioners, and so much love to your son Bear.”
The former One Direction star had son Bear with Cheryl Cole. It emerged last night that he had died at the age of 31.
Local police said Payne had fallen from the third floor of a hotel in Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires, on Wednesday evening (October 16). He is said to have suffered “extremely serious injuries”.
It is not yet clear exactly what happened but an investigation has now been launched. The UK Foreign Office has said it is in touch with authorities in Argentina.
Liam was dating US influencer, Kate Cassidy, and had a child with Girls Aloud’s Cheryl Cole. Together, Cole and Payne had Bear in 2017. As part of the boy band One Direction, which formed on the X Factor in 2010, he became part of one of the most successful bands in the world alongside his bandmates Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik.
The band have not yet released a statement. Yet Harry’s mum, Anne Twist, simply posted a broken heart emoji to her Instagram feed with the caption: “Just a boy…”
Outside the Casa Sur hotel where Liam Payne was found dead on Wednesday evening, fans gathered and held an impromptu vigil to pay their respects to someone they had grown up with and whose music they had come to love.