Niall Horan has revealed that while the death of his late bandmate Liam Payne brings him ‘sadness’, there are times when he ‘laughs and smirks’ over their shared memories
Niall Horan has revealed that the death of Liam Payne will always bring “sadness”, but there are fond memories which make him laugh. Liam tragically died, aged just 31, in October 2024, after falling from the third floor of his hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Weeks before Liam’s sad death, he spent time with Niall in the same month at the Movistar Arena in Buenos Aires, where Horan was playing a sold-out show. The pair shared snaps from backstage, with Niall recently revealing they also met hours earlier in his hotel.
Both Niall and Liam met on The X Factor in 2010, when Pussycat Dolls star Nicole Scherzinger put them together in One Direction, alongside Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles and Zayn Malik, after all five lads faced the possibility of being sent home from the competition.
Together, the group went on to become one of the biggest bands of all time, before splitting in 2016. In a new interview, Niall reflected on Liam’s death, revealing that he’s glad his final memory with his close friend is a “happy” one. However, there’s “light and shade” around Niall’s grief for Payne.
Speaking to The Sunday Times’ Culture magazine, the Irish star said: “When I think of Liam’s passing, there is sadness, but it also makes me laugh and smirk because of the memories we had.
“I’ll go to places and think of something stupid in a hotel or something random that makes me laugh. We always had good fun in Australia because we were able to get out and go to the beach. Liam wasn’t too bad at suring. I can barely swim.”
To this day, Niall remains in contact with Liam’s family, with the Dinner Party singer admitting that all the One Direction families are in touch with one another. He says it’s not just the lads who formed an unforgettable bond, but also their loved ones who shared those experiences.
On his new record, Niall has paid tribute to Liam with his song, End of an Era. “I think it’s his type of song, he liked Coldplay, he loved songs like You & I by One Direction, songs that went somewhere,” he said. But while Liam’s death brought up discussions about the negative side of fame, which Liam himself had been so open about, Niall says his death is still “surreal”.
He told the outlet: “I’m glad of that, it means my last memory of him was happy. It still feels surreal. On day one, I was, like, ‘Nah, it didn’t happen.’ Our friendship was a bond that was there forever, even if we hadn’t seen each other for a while, and it’s wild that one day, like the flick of a switch, he’s gone.”
But the song “End of an Era” almost didn’t come to fruition. Niall sat down with John Ryan and Julian Bunetta for the track, two of One Direction’s long-time collaborators. “We wrote ‘End of an Era’ about four times, because originally the song to me meant, ‘All right, we’re moving on’,” he said previously.
Niall continued: “We’d written that song a long time ago. And then it was like, ‘No, we need to return to this,’ after Liam passed.” John and Julian had been Liam’s neighbours, with the four lads growing up together on the road. “For the three of us, it was actually quite a crazy experience to have to write a song like that, because you don’t ever expect to,” he explained.
Niall added that it was a “very weird experience” for the trio, but felt as though they “had to” rewrite it, not just for themselves, but for people listening who may have lost a loved one, as well as for the fans and Liam’s loved ones. He said: “It felt like the right thing to do and something that we wanted to do — just terrible that we had to.”
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