Harry Styles has paid tribute to his former band mate Liam Payne with a moving message after the 31-year-old fell to his death while holidaying in Argentina.
It has been reported that Liam fell from the third floor of the hotel he was staying at and suffered “very serious injuries incompatible with life.” City ambulance service provider spokesman, Alberto Crescenti, said he had fallen around 40 metres and suffered “severe injuries which were incompatible with life.”
On Thursday, Harry took to Instagram to share his sadness. “I am truly devastated by Liam’s passing,” he wrote. “His greatest joy was making other people happy, and it was an honour to be alongside him as he did it.
“Liam lived wide open, with his heart on his sleeve, he had an energy for life that was infectious. He was warm, supportive, and incredibly loving. The years we spent together will forever remain among the most cherished years of my life. I will miss him always, my lovely friend. My heart breaks for Karen, Geoff, Nicola and Ruth, his son Bear, and all those around the world who knew and loved him, as I did.”
Harry’s mum, Anne Twist, also paid tribute to the star with a simple but poignant message. Taking to Instagram in view of her 2.5 million followers, Anne Twist shared a black screen with a red broken heart emoji across it. Captioning her upload, she penned: “Just a boy…,” alongside another broken heart.
The One Direction stars became good friends after being grouped together, along with Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson, by X Factor’s Simon Cowell back in 2010.
They toured the world together from 2010 to 2016, before deciding to go their own ways. However, the lads reportedly still stayed in touch, catching up every now and then.
Speaking about their friendship, Liam previously said: “He [Harry] called me because he has a sixth sense for if I’m struggling or if one of us is in trouble, I feel like.
“I spoke to him, and it was a really lovely catchup, actually. And I’ve got a lot of love for the man. He’s great, he’s really, really great.”
He continued: “I think we’ve all felt this at different times, me and the boys. It’s almost like missing a very dear friend a lot of the time. But everyone’s so busy and you’ve got to be understanding of all that.”
