Liam Payne had everything he could ever have dreamed of while still a teenager. As a member of One Direction, there was a string of No 1 hits, adoring (mostly female) fans, millions in the bank and a lifestyle that involved travelling the world by private jet and performing to packed-out stadiums.
But he’d made a pact with the devil and, not surprisingly, he came off worse.
Now, in the aftermath of his tragic death, it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that he was doomed from the moment he became a child star.
Liam was just 14 when he first auditioned for the X Factor and, while he was dropped after the second round, judge Simon Cowell was so impressed by his boyish good looks, easy charm and exquisite pop vocals that he advised him to ‘come back in two years’.
Liam Payne first auditioned for the X Factor aged just 14, and was told by judge Simon Cowell to come back in two years
And when he did, he was given a ticket to megastardom by being selected as one of five contestants to form One Direction.
They were then put through the wringer by their managers, with a punishing regime of recording and touring that would have tested the stamina of much more experienced performers.
It was certainly too much for the sensitive lad from Wolverhampton who went from sharing a modest loving home with his mum Karen, a nurse, his dad Geoff, a fitter, and his two older sisters Nicola and Ruth, to being catapulted to instant international stardom.
And after the band split in 2016, he endured several broken relationships. He fell victim to depression, anxiety and an over-reliance on alcohol and drugs.
Liam Payne with girlfriend Kate Cassidy, who had been in Argentina with him until just two days before tragedy struck
How could it have come to this? How could the lad given the honour of singing the opening lines of One Direction’s first hit in 2011, What Makes You Beautiful, end up dead just 13 years later?
Perhaps the answer lies in the chorus to that song sung by Harry Styles: ‘You don’t know, oh-oh, you don’t know you’re beautiful, oh-oh/That’s what makes you beautiful.’
For the sweet innocent teenager unwittingly entered into a Faustian pact aged just 16 which brought him adulation and riches but cost him his sanity and, ultimately, his life. And left Bear, his son by the former Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Tweedy, fatherless aged just seven.
In August, he uploaded an Instagram video in which he said of his son: ‘Bless him. He’s getting so big now. He’s a big boy and he looks like a mini me. As if we needed any more me in the world.’
It sounded poignant then – but irredeemably tragic now.
His decline surely had its roots in the pressure of instant fame. He took an epilepsy drug as a mood stabiliser to deal with the ‘erratic highs and lows’ that were part and parcel of being a member of the most famous boyband in the world.
Alcohol became his crutch. ‘Doing a show to however many thousands of people, then being stuck by yourself in a country where you can’t go out anywhere, what else are you going to do…but hit the minibar,’ he once said.
Like so many tortured artists before him, Liam soon found that the only way to cope with the comedown from the incredible adrenaline rush generated by playing stadiums full of screaming fans was to self-medicate with class A drugs – the road to ruin and early death for so many stars.
After the band split, he revealed in numerous interviews how he became prone to depression and anxiety and his mental health suffered further from setbacks such as the failure of his initially promising solo career and parting ways with his manager.
So, did no one hear his cries for help when he said in 2015: ‘It was a point where every day, you didn’t know whether it was going to be the end. It was so touch and go, at every single show. I was slowly losing the plot.’
Payne posted a photo of himself to his Instagram story in the hours before his death
We’ve seen this sort of slow motion car-crash many times before, of course. Amy Winehouse was just 27 when she died of alcohol poisoning. The same age as Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain when he shot himself just days after checking out of a drug rehabilitation centre.
One friend told the Mail: ‘Liam had been struggling, he just wanted to be a good person. He had the world at his feet, he worked so hard but he just couldn’t get over his pain.’
Perhaps Liam’s hospitalisation last September in Italy with a mystery serious illness should have been a wake-up call, especially after his previous pleas for help with his mental health.
His erratic behaviour on the afternoon before he fell from the balcony of his hotel in Buenos Aires was another red flag. Witnesses in the hotel lobby say he smashed up his laptop and was so incapacitated by drugs or alcohol ‘he had to be carried back to his room’ and the police were called.
When they returned later that night, it was to cordon off the hotel’s internal courtyard where his broken body lay.
Meanwhile, back in London, Simon Cowell responded to news of Payne’s death by cancelling filming of the latest series of Britain’s Got Talent.