Kate Cassidy appeared on Lorraine’s ITV show on Wednesday morning, in her first TV interview since the death of her partner, Liam Payne. In October last year, the One Direction star died at the age of 31 after a fall from a Buenos Aires hotel balcony.
This week, it was announced Kate was joining ITV’s new mental health campaign March4March, which encourages people to help their own mental health by walking and talking.
During their chat, Kate was overcome with emotion as she fought back tears speaking about Liam. When explaining her reason for joining ITV’s campaign, she revealed the hidden sign that prompted her.
Lorraine said: “It’s great to talk to you. Thank you so much for helping us launch this campaign. It’s something that you feel, well, it was meant to be in a way.”
Kate replied: “Yeah, definitely, I think that this campaign speaks volumes to me. Anything I can do in the mental health department to help anybody, I feel like I now want to be able to help people feel less alone and get through grief and healing. So, anything I can really do to provide that, I definitely want to be able to.”
The ITV star was quick to mention the title of the campaign and how it resonated with Kate. She replied: “Yeah, that’s actually the first thing that I noticed when I first read into the campaign. It’s called March, and the first thing I was drawn to was the number four.
“For people that aren’t too familiar with the number four, it’s mine and Liam’s angel number, which symbolises support and guidance from your angels. I genuinely believe Liam, in a way, guided me to this campaign and wanted me to be involved in this and help other people.
“It’s something he would’ve wanted me to do. It’s still so special. I see it (the number four) so often, and it’s going to be something that’s going to be involved in my life forever, and every time I see the number four, I know he’s there with me.”
Lorraine highlighted how comforting that must be for her as she detailed the hard road she’s had to embark on over the past few months. Elsewhere during their chat, Kate was overcome with emotion as she held back tears.
Admitting that she’s not lost anyone close to her before, Kate shared she’s not alone in her grief as so many people had love for Liam. Holding back tears, she said: “I’ll always have so much love for him. He was really one of a kind, and he was the definition of he would light up any room he walked into.
“He had this sense of humour where he just really could make anything better. His presence was just comforting and warming, that’s something that I’ll never forget about him, ever.”
Lorraine continues weekdays on ITV from 9am.