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Even as fans and musicians mourn the death of former One Direction singer Liam Payne, many are stunned by the seemingly ordinary photos he was sharing on social media hours prior.
The singer, who rose to fame as a member of the British pop band One Direction, died at 31 after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Argentina, officials said on Wednesday, 16 October.
An hour before news of his death broke, Payne shared now-deleted photos from his trip to Buenos Aires with his girlfriend Kate Cassidy.
In a video, Payne can be seen sitting at his hotel’s breakfast table, joking with Cassidy about leaving her hat on the table. “Lovely day in Argentina,” the video was captioned.
“It’s a lovely day here in Argentina,” he said in the video. “This is the breakfast table. Just enjoying coffee and breakfast even though it’s 1 pm.”
In another post, Payne posed with Cassidy for a selfie with the caption, “Quality time” and teased a Halloween costume idea with a photo of himself sitting on a chair. It was captioned: “Halloween costume idea: Forest Gump.”
Payne’s final Snapchat story was a photo of himself and Cassidy in swimsuits, one that Cassidy had posted on Instagram in August 2023 to mark his 30th birthday.
While officials are still investigating the exact circumstances surrounding Payne’s death, Buenos Aires police said in a statement he died after he fell from a hotel balcony on the third floor.
He suffered “extremely serious injuries” and medics pronounced him dead on the spot, the Associated Press reported. Authorities will perform an autopsy and investigate the cause of his death.
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Earlier this month, Payne reportedly shared a Snapchat saying he was travelling to Argentina in part to see his former bandmate Niall Horan play a show there.
“It’s been a while since me and Niall have spoken,” he said. “We’ve got a lot to talk about and I would like to square up a couple of things with the boy. No bad vibes or nothing like that but we just need to talk,” he said.
