Originally appeared on E! Online
Louis Tomlinson will always treasure Liam Payne.
One year after his One Direction bandmate’s tragic death, Tomlinson recently opened up about how hard it still is to recognize his friend’s passing.
“I naively thought that, at this point,” Tomlinson — whose mom and sister died in 2016 and 2019, respectively — told The Independent in an interview published Oct. 18, “I’d unfortunately be a little bit more well-versed with grief than other people my age. I thought that might mean something, but it didn’t at all.”
The “Back to You” singer added of Payne, who died in October 2024 after falling from a third-floor balcony at a hotel in Argentina, “It’s something I’ll never really accept, I don’t think.”
In 2010, Payne and Tomlinson became part of One Direction, which was formed out of the reality television competition series “The X Factor.” The two were also joined by Harry Styles, Zayn Malik and Niall Horan, becoming one of the best-selling groups of all time.
And though the group took an indefinite hiatus in 2016, Tomlinson says that Payne was one friend he could always count on to show up.
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Reflecting on his time as a judge on “The X Factor,” Tomlinson explained, “This is in no way a comment aimed at the other boys — but I know if it was me, I would have struggled with that idea. There [would have been] a feeling of inferiority there, because you’re the guest. But any opportunity Liam got like that, he was always, always there for me.”
“Even if he might have been struggling,” Tomlinson added, “he put himself second and still turned up. Those moments are really testament to the truth of who he was as a person.”
The “Perfect” singer also recently opened up about his bandmate’s legacy, noting the impact Payne had on him and their group as a while.
“I could just go on and talk all day about how amazing he was, but I think we all looked up to him,” he said during his appearance on the “Diary of a CEO” podcast earlier this month. “I don’t think we would have been brave enough to say at that age when I was in the band, I think I would’ve had too much pride, but we all looked up to him massively.”
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