Payne died Wednesday in Buenos Aires after falling from the third floor of a hotel. He was 31.
The cause of death was not immediately released, but police said the “Strip That Down” singer may have been “under the influence of drugs or alcohol” before throwing himself off the balcony of his room and sustaining “extremely serious” — and ultimately fatal — injuries.
The English pop star, who got his start on “The X Factor” in 2008 as one-fifth of One Direction, had spoken candidly in recent years about battling addiction and mental health issues.
Payne said on a podcast in 2021 that he hit “rock bottom” and experienced “suicidal ideation” during his time in the chart-topping boy band, which broke up in 2016 and also included Harry Styles, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson. (Zayn Malik quit the group in 2015.)
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