Inside Liam Payne’s tight-knit household with dad and mom Karen and Geoff

News of Liam Payne‘s sad death has sent shockwaves around the world leaving his family and fans devastated.  

The former One Direction member, 31, fell from the third floor of CasaSur Palmero Hotel in Buenos Aires shortly after 5pm on Wednesday evening. 

Before his incredible rise to fame on The X Factor and successful career in the British band he had an extremely normal and down to earth childhood with loving parents and two older sisters who he shared an extremely close bond with.  

His mother and father were Karen , a humble nurse, and Geoff Payne, a fitter – who regularly spoke of how proud they were that their son was a member of the famous band. 

Liam had two older sisters, Nicola and Ruth Payne, making him the youngest of three siblings in the tight-knit family who seemed completely unbothered about a life in the spotlight. 

Just nine weeks ago Geoff, his father, posted a sweet image of his son and his dog as he penned in the caption: ‘#like if you love my son!’ – a post which has since been flooded with messages of condolence for their family. 

Geoff’s Instagram bio sweetly reads: ‘Proud to call myself Liam Payne’s father’, with his account mostly consisting of snaps of his son at various points of his music career. 

‘It was great, though we didn’t have much,’ Liam told The Telegraph in a 2017 interview about his childhood. 

‘Dad was in debt, but they did the best they could. It makes you dream a bit, you know?’ 

The star has previously said that a career in music would be ‘the thing that made my parents proudest.’ 

And proud they were – even having a cardboard cut out of him in their living room because they missed him while he was away on tour with the band in their hey day. 

In the 2013 film documentary about the band This Is Us Karen is seen breaking down in the merchandise tent at Madison Square Garden in New York where the band is playing.

Karen sobs inconsolably as she is filmed buying a £34.99 cardboard cut-out of her son.

She says: ‘We miss him. He left home my little boy and became the boy in a magazine. If I have this I can still see him every day. When I see him on stage I absolutely burst with pride, but we do miss him so much.’

‘I shed tears just looking at him. They become someone in a newspaper or a magazine to you. I always believed Liam would make it but never this big. Never in my wildest dreams. He goes away for so long.’

The film also showed a visit Liam made home over Christmas in 2012, when the family went for a celebratory meal at their favourite local curry house, the Penn Tandoori.

They hadn’t seen Liam as much as they would have liked at the time and had travelled to New York earlier that year just so they could spent a few hours with him.

The film showed Geoff close to tears as he spoke about how much he missed his son. 

He said that he has missed out on ‘rites of passage’ such as seeing Liam finish school, and buying him his first pint of beer.

Geoff said at the time: ‘It’s not just the mums, it’s the dads that struggle, too. I mean, I can’t offer him much, I could take him out for a drink or play some pool.

‘But he’s the only lad in the family and I’ll never get this time back, he’s gone. And I can’t give him advice because he has seen more of the world than me.’

Later in the film Liam reacted to his sadness telling an interviewer: ‘He’s always so happy when I see him and happy to have me home; to actually see what he’s like when I’m not there was a bit mad.’

On Karen’s Instagram account she regularly posted pictures of all of her children and her bio poignantly reads: ‘Enjoying and hugging. Nicola, Ruth & Liam’s mommy x.’

In terms of his sisters the siblings all appeared to share a strong bond, with Nicola’s most recent picture being a throwback of their family. 

Liam was seen beaming in the snap as he sat between his sisters with his parents behind them as she penned in the post: ‘#throwback’ along with a red heart emoji.

His other older sister Ruth posts less frequently on her Instagram page, but she did write, ‘Ruth here! I’m 21! Best boy friend and two siblings including a very talented brother that makes us all proud!’ in one old post.

Liam’s music career began in 2008 when he first auditioned for The X Factor at the age of 14.

Although he didn’t make it through, he was encouraged by Simon Cowell to return in a few years and was then formed as part of the band – with the four young men going on to have stratospheric success. 

He has previously said his exasperation with fame came to a head in New York in 2012 when he was walking to a restaurant with his parents, and a photographer accidentally pushed his mum down.

‘I was like, ‘Oh, f*** this. F*** this s***,’ he recalled. ‘There was a swarm of them and I just wanted a burger with my parents. I cried my eyes out. I thought, ‘I can’t do this,’ and really hated my life.’

A number of prominent personalities including X Factor stars Dermot O’Leary, Olly Murs and Rylan Clark were among those to pay tribute to Liam after the sad news broke. 

X Factor presenter Dermot O’Leary posted that it was ‘the worst news. I remember him as a 14 year old turning up to audition on The X Factor, and blowing us away singing Sinatra. He just loved to sing’.

‘He was always a joy, had time for everyone, polite, grateful, and was always humble.’

Singer-songwriter Charlie Puth, a co-writer on Payne’s 2017 song Bedroom Floor, took to Instagram Stories with multiple posts paying memorial to his late colleague.

‘I am in shock right now. Liam was always so kind to me,’ Puth said. ‘He was one of the first major artists I got to work with. I can not believe he is gone….’

He posted a clip of himself with Payne, writing, ‘I’m so upset right now, may he rest in peace’ while another clip read, ‘I am so sorry.’

Singer Olly Murs, who starred on The X Factor a year before One Direction, posted a lengthy tribute on Instagram, saying he was ‘lost for words.’

‘We always had a good laugh when we saw each other, sometimes the catch ups were only short and sweet but when we did it was mostly about how annoyingly good his hair always looked, or our love for Becks, the old XF days and the tour we shared together,’ Olly wrote.

‘Liam shared the same passions as me, the same dreams so to see his life now end so young hits hard, I’m truly gutted and devastated for his Family and of course his son Bear losing a dad x am thinking of them! RIP Liam.’ 

X Factor’s Rylan Clark also tweeted, telling fans: ‘Extremely sad news. V tragic and so young. RIP Liam x’ 

Harry Styles ‘mother Anne Twist shared her grief, posting a broken heart emoji over a black screen, with the caption: ‘Just a boy…’ alongside another broken heart.

The Irish musical duo Jedward, alums of The X Factor like Payne, posted the message: ‘Sending strength to Cheryl and his son Bear and all the One direction Family RIP @LiamPayne.’

Marvin Humes, whose band JLS starred on The X Factor a year before One Direction, shared a photo of his friend as he told fans how ‘We instantly clicked and looked at him as a little brother.’

‘Liam you wanted to be a global superstar and you did it bro..just can’t believe that things have ended this way..it’s shocking.’ 

Buenos Aires police said in a statement that Payne fell from the third floor of the Casa Sur Hotel in the trendy Palermo neighborhood of Argentina’s capital, resulting in ‘extremely serious injuries.’

Medics confirmed his death on the spot, the statement said. Pablo Policicchio, the spokesperson for the Security Ministry of Buenos Aires municipality, said in a statement to The Associated Press that Payne ‘had thrown himself from the balcony of his room.’

Arriving police heard a thud and found Payne’s body in the hotel courtyard, Policicchio said.

Alberto Crescenti, head of the state emergency medical system, said on Argentina´s Todo Noticias TV channel that authorities were investigating the circumstances of his death and conducting an autopsy. 

He declined to answer further questions about the incident, including whether Payne jumped from the balcony or fell by accident.

Argentine media reported that Payne was in Buenos Aires to attend the concert of his former One Direction bandmate Niall Horan.

Payne was one of five band members of One Direction, which formed in 2010 when they each auditioned for the British singing competition series The X Factor. 

After each singer failed to make it through the competition as solo acts, Simon Cowell and his fellow judges combined Payne, Horan, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson into what would become one of the most successful boy bands.

He said police were dispatched to the hotel in response to an emergency call about an ‘aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.’ 

The band became known for their pop sound and romantic hits like What Makes You Beautiful. They had six Top 10 hits on the Billboard charts by the time they disbanded in 2016. They had a loyal fan base, many of whom were teen girls, who became known as ‘Directioners.’

Payne had a seven-year-old son, Bear Grey Payne, with his former girlfriend, the musician Cheryl who was known as Cheryl Cole when she performed with Girls Aloud. She was an The X Factor judge during One Direction’s season.