Niall Horan on former bandmate Liam Payne’s death: ‘I didn’t think it was real’

Former One Direction star Niall Horan has said he did not believe his former bandmate Liam Payne’s death was real when he was first told about it.

The 32-year-old also revealed the pair met shortly before Payne’s death aged 31 in October 2024, at one of Horan’s shows in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Horan told GQ magazine: “I just remember getting a message, and I was just like, what? I just didn’t think it was real.

“Someone so young, you’re not expecting to hear that they’ve passed, especially someone that you’ve just seen. I just went back from shock to sadness to anger.”

Payne died after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina, and the boyband’s surviving members – Horan, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik – reunited at his funeral alongside former manager Simon Cowell in November that year.

Speaking about the last time he met Payne, Horan added: “It was great, (he) seemed in good form and we had a good laugh, good reminisce.

“I heard Louis talking about this recently, it’s so true. It’s like you haven’t seen each other in ages and then you just fall back in like it was 10 years ago.”

He went on to say that after Payne’s death, he felt nostalgic as well as feeling “fear and sadness”, and added that he “went into hiding a little bit” following the funeral.

Horan will release his fourth studio album, Dinner Party, in June, and the record features a song called End Of An Era, which is reportedly about Payne.

One Direction formed in 2010, when they were put together by Cowell on ITV talent show The X Factor.

They went on to have four UK number one singles and four UK number one albums, and are best known for songs such as Story Of My Life, What Makes You Beautiful and Best Song Ever.

Horan’s solo career was launched after he and his fellow One Direction band members went on hiatus in 2016, almost a year after Malik left the group.

He released his debut solo album Flicker in 2017, and has gone on to release the albums Heartbreak Weather (2020) and The Show (2023).