Liam Payne and Kate Cassidy Dave J Hogan/Getty Images
Kate Cassidy never imagined her trip to Argentina with boyfriend Liam Payne can be her last.
“Love is so optimistic, and you only hope that all the pieces will work out at the top,” the influencer, 25, said in an interview with The Sun published on Wednesday, February 5. “Obviously if I knew, if I could see into the long run, I’d never have left Argentina.”
Cassidy traveled to Buenos Aires along with her boyfriend in October 2024, but ended up leaving the trip early. Days after she returned home, Payne died at age 31 after falling from a balcony on the third floor of a hotel. The One Direction singer’s reason behind death was listed as “multiple traumas,” including hemorrhages in his chest, skull and abdomen. It was later reported that a partial autopsy found “pink cocaine” — a mixture of methamphetamine, ketamine and MDMA — together with cocaine, benzodiazepine and crack in Payne’s system on the time of his passing.
Cassidy explained that she had a “responsibility” to return to her and Payne’s home to look after their dog, Nala, and that the pair traveled individually every so often. Before she jetted off, she thought Payne was in a “good headspace.”
“I just never thought this is able to have happened, that it might prove the way in which it did. It still doesn’t feel fully real for me that he’s not here,” she told the outlet. “I’m attempting to be one of the best I could be, but I feel like my life has modified a lot. I take into consideration Liam every second of every single day.”
Cassidy was alerted of Payne’s death by considered one of his friends, who called her to deliver the news.
“That moment, it’s like blank; it’s blacked out in my head,” she recalled. “I didn’t consider it at first. I believed it was only a rumor. Or something that any individual made up simply to get views. Then immediately I just had a nasty feeling in my gut. I used to be like, ‘Why would any individual make this up? Is that this true?’”
Liam Payne’s girlfriend, Kate Cassidy, left Argentina to return to the USA two days before his sudden death. “Soooo happpiii to b back in sunshine state,” the 25-year-old influencer captioned a TikTok video on Monday, October 14. Text placed over her video revealed that Cassidy was traveling back to Florida. “I used to be so ready […]
After learning that Payne was gone, Cassidy confessed that she “blacked out” and felt “numb.” She also attempted to call Payne herself and later reached out to his family.
“Then I used to be in contact together with his family, and my mum got the primary flight out to be with me. I remember pacing across the house,” she shared. “Poor Nala thought I used to be attempting to play, she kept jumping up at me. I didn’t sleep in any respect that night.”
As Cassidy navigates life without Payne, she admitted that it’s been “hard” for her to process her grief.
“I’m 25, I’m not an authority with any of this, so it was hard,” she said. “But I loved him and I loved him regardless of what. I just did what I could do, and what I could manage to do.”
Cassidy and Payne began dating in October 2022 and made their official debut as a pair two months later on the British Fashion Awards.
“From the moment I met Liam, I genuinely believed we were soulmates,” Cassidy said on Wednesday. “He was probably the most humble, charming, normal person you might ever hope to return across, and genuinely probably the greatest people I’ve ever met in my life.”
