Simon Cowell says the dying of Liam Payne "actually hit" him.

In spite of everything, he was a choose on The X Issue UK in 2010, from which Payne's group One Course emerged. The judges determined to place a number of contestants collectively — Payne, Harry Kinds, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik — quite than enable them to compete as people.

The group famously went on to be enormously profitable, however took an indefinite hiatus in 2016, and the members pursued solo tasks.

Payne died on Oct. 16, 2024, after falling from a third-floor balcony on the CasaSur Palermo Lodge in Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina, the place he had traveled to attend Horan's live performance. Authorities instructed Leisure Weekly on the time that the singer "jumped from the balcony of his room." He was 31.

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"I noticed him a yr earlier than this occurred. He came to visit to my home. We talked about his son and being a dad," Cowell said in a Rolling Stone Music Now podcast interview printed Monday (pay attention beneath). "I bear in mind saying, 'Music shouldn’t be every thing. Don't let it run your life anymore. Discover one thing else that you’re obsessed with.'"

"Cowell continued, You ask your self that query: 'Might I’ve accomplished something extra? What would've occurred to Liam if he hadn't been within the band?' Having spoken to his mother and pop lately, all they saved telling me was he was so pleased with what he had achieved. I want I may flip again the clock, after all. Once I spoke to him that day, I felt actually good about him. I assumed, 'Wow, you appear in a very good place.'"

Revisit Liam Payne's original 'X Factor' audition and first One Direction performance Simon Cowell 'truly devastated' by death of Liam Payne

He addressed a query of whether or not it was hurtful that some individuals had blamed him.

"I don't learn any of these things as a result of if I did, you’d simply torture your self," Cowell mentioned. "The concept that you’re basically chargeable for any person's life, 10 years after you've signed somebody? You may't do this."

Cowell was brazenly upset when Payne died.

"You by no means actually know the way you’re feeling about somebody till a second like this occurs," Cowell wrote on social media. "Liam, I’m actually devastated. Heartbroken. And I really feel empty. And I would like you to know the way a lot love and respect I’ve for you. Each tear I’ve shed is a reminiscence of you."

He mentioned it was arduous to specific what he was feeling.

"I went exterior in the present day, and I considered so many occasions we had collectively," the America's Received Expertise choose wrote. "I needed to let you recognize what I’d at all times say to the 1000’s of people that would at all times ask me. What’s Liam like? And I’d inform them you have been sort, humorous, candy, considerate, proficient, humble, centered. And the way a lot you liked music. And the way a lot love you genuinely had for the followers."

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