AMANDA PLATELL: Harsh truth is nobody but Liam is to blame for his death

When news of Liam Payne's death broke last year there was an outpouring of shock. Fans, former One Direction bandmates, friends and family were all heartbroken. How could this adorable kid from Wolverhampton have ended up falling over a hotel balcony to his death in Buenos Aires?.

We had watched him grow up, seen him become a father and he was now engaged to girlfriend Kate Cassidy and had a new album on the way. Where did it go so wrong? After Liam's death, accusations were levelled at those who might be culpable. Everyone wanted to know the truth. Well, sometimes it isn't easy to tell hard truths, as they can be brutal.

But in this case, I'm afraid, the blame for his death lies squarely with Liam. He was an addict who, despite his talent, his loving family, his son Bear, a £45 million fortune and his spells in rehab, continued on the path of ruin. Court documents this week revealed that within days of waving goodbye to fiancee Kate, he was involved in a drug-fuelled threesome with two prostitutes. They'd met him in his hotel room where Liam was 'drinking whisky and consuming something like crystal, with aluminium foil which was also scattered over the sofas', the women said.

Later, he was carried semi-conscious from the lobby where he'd been raging and incoherent, smashing his laptop. Liam Payne pictured on CCTV being carried away semi-conscious from the lobby where he'd been raging and incoherent, smashing his laptop. Toxicology tests found alcohol, cocaine, crack cocaine, crystal meth and ketamine in his body.

No one can be sure whether Liam accidentally fell from that balcony or if he decided his own fate. But what we do know, tragically, is that the adorable, cheeky chappy was the author of his own misfortune, even if those who loved him point the finger at someone else.

Single mum Simone Keogh, 33, got drunk on her first date after splitting from her partner, gave the bloke a lift, crashed into a lamp post, reversed into a wall and wedged her car on a bollard – before being arrested. I'm guessing he won't be asking for a second date.

Thrilly Cooper!. As Jilly Cooper celebrates her 88th birthday riding high, so to speak, on the success of her hit Disney+ show Rivals – featuring Bella Maclean as Taggie O'Hara – what wonderful news for her that her beloved Cotswolds has topped the Libido League as the place where people have the most sex.

Many Happy Returns Jilly, you're simply unrivalled!. Jilly Cooper's hit Disney+ show Rivals features actress Bella Maclean as Taggie O'Hara. Bella as Taggie in Jilly Cooper's Rivals. The latest NHS wheeze to cut costs is to offer folk suffering mental illness tickets to comedy shows. The trials also include 'walks in nature, joining a choir, gardening, comedy for babies and LGBT+ inclusive comedy'. Surely these do-gooders are 'avin' a larf – at our expense. Pass the Prozac!.

TV star Anne Diamond, who lost her son Sebastian to cot death in 1991, asks if Lucy Letby could be a victim of the same misogyny she faced then. 'The knee-jerk assumption about the nurse's guilt reminds me of the witch-hunts once faced by mothers like me who lost their babies to cot death,' she says. Another voice in this bewildering case worth listening to?.

Our £15billion foreign aid budget reveals we send £38million for 'green growth' to Nepal, £9.5million for 'accountability and inclusion in the Congo' and £5million to Iraq to transform 'feminist funding'. I might get cross if I had the faintest idea what any of it means.

Among the animals vying for The Crufts Hero Dog 2025 award is police dog Baloo, who lost a leg chasing a suspect's car on duty. She now visits care homes and community groups spreading joy and reminding us all it's the bare necessities of life that matter most.

Insta karma?. Masked burglars broke into the £3.5million home of TV stars Mark Wright and his pregnant wife Michelle Keegan, forcing them to lock themselves in their bedroom for safety before the intruders fled. A terrible ordeal, but perhaps they should consider whether it was a good idea to post on Instagram every detail of their 'dream home' as they built it.

What's the cost as Ball bounces back?. The BBC's endlessly talented Zoe Ball, who quit her £950,000-a-year, five-days-a-week, three-hour Radio 2 breakfast show two months ago, will return with a weekly two-hour Saturday afternoon show and the occasional special.

Let's hope her eye-watering salary is slashed in accordance with her diminished workload. The BBC's endlessly talented Zoe Ball will return with a weekly two-hour Saturday afternoon show and the occasional special. We would never have been any the wiser had an investigative journalist not revealed that the star of the BBC's prime-time Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone, Abdullah Al-Yazouri, 13, was the son of a senior Hamas minister. Shameful and a new low for the Beeb, a clear dereliction of their duty of impartiality.