Emotional interview

Payne’s girlfriend talks about Liam’s final days

Kate Cassidy speaks for the first time in an emotional interview about her relationship with Liam Payne and the final days of the pop star, who died in October after falling from a hotel balcony.(Bild: PPS/www.photopress.at)

Almost four months after the tragic death of Liam Payne, his girlfriend Kate Cassidy spoke for the first time about the pop star's final days in an emotional interview and revealed why she left her boyfriend behind alone. The ex-One Direction star died in October after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina.

Cassidy and Payne were vacationing together in Argentina before the pop star's death. Shortly before the tragedy, the 25-year-old influencer left to return to Florida. A decision she still struggles with today, Cassidy told The Sun. 

"Had a commitment"
"I had a commitment, we had a commitment. I had our dog and I actually never even thought that this could happen," she explained.

Liam Payne and Kate Cassidy were a couple for two years. Now the influencer has spoken about the tragic death of her boyfriend.(Bild: PPS/www.PPS.at)

Payne's death was a "tragic accident", Cassidy told The Sun, and she never thought that her boyfriend could die young. "But, you know, we had our separate lives - this wasn't the first time we'd been apart," she continued.

Relapse came "out of nowhere"
The relapse of her boyfriend, who had repeatedly spoken about his problems in the past, came "out of nowhere" for her, Cassidy explained. She hadn't realized that he was in such a fragile state. "I just didn't think that something like this could happen, that it could turn out the way it did. It still doesn't really feel real to me that he's gone," she explained. She has thought about her boyfriend "every second of every day" since his death. 

Cassidy and Payne were a couple for two years. "From the moment I met Liam, I was sure we were soul mates," Cassidy said. "He was the most humble, charming and normal person you could ever meet and truly one of the best people I've ever met in my life."

"Blackout moment"
It was therefore also "really hard" to know that Payne was no longer "there with me to go through this life, that I have to deal with it without him by my side," Cassidy added. "You just don't think about the worst thing that can happen."

It therefore felt "like a blackout moment" when she received the news of Liam's tragic death, Cassidy said. In her initial shock, she tried to reach him on her cell phone - which even rang. It was only later that she thought about how trivial the last message she had exchanged with her boyfriend was.

"I can't wait for you to come home and see the house," she wrote to him after decorating their home for Halloween. Three days after Payne's death, the decorator asked how her boyfriend had liked the surprise. That was the moment she realized that her loved one would never come home again, Cassidy said.

Large amounts of alcohol and cocaine
Payne was 31 when he fell from the balcony of a room on the third floor of a hotel in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, where he had been a guest for three days, on October 16.

According to the public prosecutor's office, forensic experts believe it is likely that he passed out while trying to climb over the balcony railing. An autopsy found large quantities of alcohol and cocaine in his body.