Liam Payne died during what was supposed to be a brief trip to Argentina to see Niall Horan, his former bandmate, perform in Buenos Aires.
The holiday was extended from five days to two weeks, according to Kate Cassidy, Payne’s girlfriend, who flew home on Monday.
Payne fell to his death from a third floor balcony in the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires after reports that he was behaving erratically and under the influence of drink and drugs.
Less than an hour before his death, he had posted a Snapchat video of the trip, chatting about riding polo ponies and saying that he was looking forward to heading home to see his dog.
But the holiday had been overshadowed by problems.
Maya Henry, his former girlfriend, had made headlines with a TikTok video on Oct 6 accusing him of “disgusting” behaviour and claiming he had harassed her and her mother with repeated phone calls and messages. She reportedly issued legal proceedings against him last week, which sources said contributed to Payne feeling “extremely overwhelmed”.
In the video, she claimed that Payne had been “weaponising” his fans against her on social media and warned that there was “a lot more of this story so… stay tuned.”
Henry said: “You weaponise your own fan base. People are always saying, ‘oh, she just wants money’… I don’t need money.”
After Payne’s death, representatives for Henry said she was “obviously in shock”.
Here is a reconstruction of the days leading up to his death.