As fans around the world mourn the loss of Liam Payne, a source has exclusively revealed that Taylor Swift will pay tribute to the late singer on the opening night of the final leg of her Eras Tour.
The 34-year-old hitmaker is reportedly distraught about the former One Direction member’s death.
‘She is really sad about this because she came up with those boys and she had a lot of love for Liam,’ an insider revealed to the DailyMail.com.
‘He was always good to her,’ they added.
The pair appeared to have a good working relationship, with Payne revealing in 2017 on the red carpet for the Jingle Bell Ball that the Cruel Summer singer had sent him a hamper and a beautifully hand-written note.
‘She [Swift] actually sent me a lovely little hamper of a new Reputation gear,’ Payne told a reporter from On Demand Entertainment at the time.
‘She’s got very good right handwriting if she did write it,’ he quipped, joking the hitmaker can ‘afford [for] someone to do calligraphy for us all.’
Swift dated Payne’s One Direction bandmate, Harry Styles, for several months in late 2012.
The final leg of Swift’s Eras Tour kicks off on Friday, October 18 in Miami, Florida.
Payne died at age 31 on Wednesday, October 16, after falling from his room at the Casa Sur Palmero Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The popstar had reportedly arrived in the Latin American country earlier this month to attend his ex bandmate Niall Horan‘s concert.
Several witnesses reported that Payne had fallen from his room shortly after 5pm (ART).
A police statement from local police said they arrived to the hotel after they were ‘informed of an aggressive man who may have been under the effects of drugs and alcohol’.
City ambulance service provider spokesman Alberto Crescenti said Payne had fallen around 40 metres and suffered ‘severe injuries which were incompatible with life.’
He said: ‘The alarm was raised at 5.04pm local time saying a person was lying in an internal patio at Casa Sur.
‘At 5.11pm an ambulance arrived and the man was certified dead.
‘Afterwards we found out he had been a famous singer. Unfortunately the injuries he had suffered as a result of the fall proved to be fatal. There was no possibility of resuscitating him.’
One of the star’s final Snapchat posts showed him happily posing with his partner Kate Cassidy as they looked into a mirror – a picture which was originally taken last August.
Further posts from the final moments of the star’s life showed him enjoying lunch in his hotel room, where he revealed the pair had been ‘waking up at 1pm every day’ and deciding on Forest Gump as a Halloween costume.
A further tragic selfie was captioned: ‘Lovely day in Argentina’ before the star shared a photo of his hotel, writing: ‘Happy I got some time away’ followed by a heart emoji.
He shared a further photo with Kate captioned: ‘Quality time.’
Payne leaves behind a son, Bear, age seven, whom he shared with pop sensation Cherl Cole.
In a tragic twist, Payne’s last Instagram post was paying tribute to documentary filmmaker, Morgan Spurlock on May 29, sharing a 2013 snap with his One Direction bandmates.
The image showed the group – Payne, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik – posing with Spurlock at the premiere of their concert documentary One Direction: This Is Us.
The post was captioned: ‘Rest in peace Morgan Spurlock it was a pleasure working with you.’
Payne began his pursuit to stardom when he initially auditioned for X Factor in 2008, impressing judges with his own version of Fly Me To The Moon by Frank Sinatra – but was later eliminated from the show.
However, he gave his singing career another go auditioning for the competition again in 2010, where he quickly shot to fame as part of One Direction.
He and his former bandmates Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, were brought together by Simon Cowell and former judge Nicole Scherzinger who saw their potential as a group.
After just a few weeks of getting to know each other and non-stop rehearsing, the group impressed Cowell at their Judge’s Houses audition and sailed through to the live shows.
Cowell moved quickly with recording for the band’s debut album beginning in January 2011.
By September of that year One Direction’s first single was released with What Makes You Beautiful soaring to number one on the UK Singles Chart, after becoming the most pre-ordered Sony Music Entertainment single in history.
