Liam Payne Told Hotel Guest He Was 'F----- Up' Because He Was 'in a Boy Band' 30 Minutes Before Falling to His Death
Liam Payne referenced the impact being in One Direction had on his mental health just minutes before his shocking death.
A guest who had been staying at the same CasaSur Hotel where Payne died recalled her chilling interaction with the late pop star — which was one of the last conversations he had before his life tragically ended on Wednesday, October 16.
The woman, choosing to identify under the fake name Rebecca, claimed Payne informed her he was "so f----- up" because he "used to be in a boy band" while explaining his erratic behavior in the lobby of the high-end Buenos Aires hotel, according to a news publication that spoke to the hotel guest.
Rebecca, a 28-year-old IT consultant from Washington, D.C., even captured haunting photos of Payne's final moments alive, as seen in photos obtained by the news outlet.
The images were taken at 4:26 p.m. local time in Argentina. By 5:04 p.m., hotel staffers heard a loud thud and realized Payne had fallen — or, according to police, "jumped" — from his balcony on the third floor of the building. An ambulance was reported to arrive at 5:11 p.m. The late "Teardrops" singer was pronounced dead moments later.
Recalling the start of Payne's chaotic rampage, the hotel guest explained: "One of my friends was due to get his suite, so the hotel staff were a little on edge because he still hadn't checked out at 4.30 p.m., but also because of his behavior."
"I came into the hotel, and he was waiting by the elevator, and it was so clear he wanted someone to recognize him, there was something a bit desperate about him," she admitted. "I was with my friends and we did know who he was, but none of us were that bothered."
"When the lift came he suddenly said to us without any prompting: 'Yes, I'm Liam!' really drawing it out, and then said 'All right come on you lot, get in the elevator with me, I love a cuddle," she claimed of her interaction with the late One Direction band member. "I decided against it and waited for the next one, but some of the other girls got in with him and half way up, he started saying 'Oh, you're Americans, I live in West Palm Beach.'"
"'I know Americans. You guys are f------ crazy! You guys are f------ dangerous!'" he reportedly continued, per the hotel guest. "And then he grabs a girl who I think was with him and starts fake choking her, only lightly, but the others thought it was really disturbing."
Roughly ten minutes later, Rebecca arrived back in the hotel's lobby, with Payne only a few steps behind, hardly holding onto his open laptop by its corner. It was then he began reading emails on one of the lobby's sofas.
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"I have a blind relative and I realized he had the laptop on its accessibility setting, for some reason, so that each time he moved the mouse, hovering over something the machine spoke out loud to say where the cursor was," the witness shared. "I assumed he was doing that for the attention too. Then he opened his emails and saw one which obviously upset him. Suddenly he took the computer, shouted 'f--- this s--- mate!' and started bashing the computer on the ground."
Rebecca continued: "Everyone, especially the staff was really shocked. It's a high-end hotel and his behavior was so out of place — people were just chilling. I went over, asked 'are you OK?' But he just kind of grunted. Then he said 'I used to be in a boyband. That's why I'm so f----- up.'"
"I couldn't believe he'd just come out and said something like that," she confessed. "There was a lot more swearing and he took the laptop over and went to get back in the lift. After he'd gone, the British guy from his entourage, who I think was called Roger, came over and apologized on his behalf, saying 'I'm sorry, he just gets so high sometimes.'"
"I did wonder what these people with him were doing to help him, but maybe they had tried and failed," she acknowledged. "The hotel staff were freaking out and watching him really nervously. I could see one of them was on the phone to what I assumed was security or the police."
Rebecca alleged: "I've never taken cocaine, but he was behaving exactly as I'd imagine someone would on the drug — he wasn't focusing, and his pupils were dilated, and he was behaving in aggressive way — though not to anyone in particular."
As for why Payne was hanging out in the lobby and not in his hotel room, Rebecca guessed he was waiting to meet someone for more drugs.
After leaving a second time, "he walked in again and just tripped and fell flat on his face, sprawling across the floor," she stated. "The staff came to help him and get him back in the elevator, and that's when I took the last photo. You can just see the arm of the English guy who was with him, holding the lift door open before taking them up to the third floor again."
"It wasn't long after that when the police arrived and initially we thought they were just going to kick him out, but then when the staff started running around like crazy, we suddenly realized the seriousness of what had happened," Rebecca expressed of the horrific moment Payne died. "Some of my friends had seen him falling, it was awful, and at first they thought he might have just injured himself, but then we saw the body out in the courtyard, and later they brought him out on a stretcher, it was all so horrible."
Daily Mail spoke to Rebecca.