Liam Payne explained ‘problem’ of being in One Direction years before death

Liam Payne opened up about the struggles he faced within One Direction years before his tragic death in Argentina.

The 31-year-old died after falling from the third floor of a hotel overnight in Buenos Aires and a brutally honest interview with Stephen Bartlett on the Diary of a CEO podcast in 2021 has since resurfaced.

In it, he e xplained that sometimes it felt as if the band was only let out briefly and then locked back into their hotel rooms. He said: “The problem we had in the band. It feels like when we were in the band the best way to secure us because of how big it got was just to lock us in our rooms and of course what’s in the room, minibar.”

Liam recounted his solitary partying, reflecting on the duration of his drinking habits with a sense of shock: “So, at a certain point, I thought ‘Well I’m going to have a party for one’ and that just seemed to carry on through many years of my life’.

“And then you look back at how long you’ve been drinking and you think ‘Jesus Christ that’s a long time’ even for someone as young as I was. It was wild but it was the only way you could get frustration out in the day.”

Liam Payne opened up about the constraints of fame, likening it to an “abusive relationship.”, reports the Manchester Evening News.

He revealed, “I spoke to somebody about this and in child development, as a teen, the one thing you need is freedom to make choices and freedom to do stuff and it was the one thing, although we could do anything we wanted it seemed from the outside, that we were always locked in a room at night and then it would be car, hotel room stage, sing, locked. So, it was like they pulled the dust cloth off, let us out for a minute and then back underneath here.”

Reflecting on his understanding of the situation at the time, Liam admitted he was clueless, saying: “When we were 17 I thought the security guard was in charge of me.”

He added, “That’s what it was like so I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. There’s no guidebook, they don’t give you a little DVD on the way in saying ‘Here! You’re a popstar, this is what you’ve got to do!’”

The singer also touched upon the emotional toll it took, stating: “Eventually that becomes an angry person and I was because there were points when it was toxic and it was difficult. Don’t get me wrong we had the best time ever, but there were moments.”

In a tragic turn of events, the world was left in shock as news of Liam Payne’s death emerged on Wednesday evening. The star reportedly suffered a fatal fall from the third floor of Casa Sur Palermo, a hotel in Buenos Aires.

Prior to his untimely passing, Liam had spoken fondly of former bandmate Niall Horan, who was performing in Brazil.

He announced on social media: “We’re going to Argentina. One, because we have to, and two, because we want to, and three, because Niall Horan’s playing down there and I think we might just go and say ‘Hello’.”

“It’s been a while since me and Niall have spoken. We’ve got a lot to talk about and I would like to square up a couple things with the boy. No bad vibes or nothing like that, but just, we need to talk.”

Local authorities confirmed in a statement: “Liam James Payne, composer and guitarist, former member of the band One Direction, died today after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Palermo.”