Liam Payne’s close friend Roger Nores has given a haunting retelling of the star’s final months. Liam died on the 16th October 2024 aged just 31 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, after falling from a third-floor balcony of his hotel. Businessman Roger made claims about the months and hours leading up to the One Direction star’s death, claiming he suffered from an overdose and was “sectioned” in May.
Roger met Liam in 2020 at a Vogue party in London, and they immediately became fast friends despite their very different occupations. While Liam’s party lifestyle was alien to Roger, he was quickly informed that his close pal had overdosed in May 2024, according to the Mail Online. The outlet reports that Liam’s manager, Finan O’Connor, called Roger, who told him that Liam had been rushed to hospital and resuscitated after an overdose, and was in intensive care in a critical condition.
Roger claimed that after Liam was discharged from hospital, Geoff Payne pushed for the star to be sectioned. “Originally, they tried to have him sectioned for 90 days. That ended up getting cut down to 30 days. But Liam talked his way out after just three,” he said. According to Roger, Liam then turned to him for help, and was told to meet him in the States. The musician headed to Florida that summer with girlfriend Kate Cassidy, and Roger said that the Liam he met was “shivering and clearly unwell.” He recalled: “He told me he’d lost 20kg and weighed just 60kg.”.
Liam reportedly made a major effort to turn his life around, after Roger claimed that he found him an addiction specialist and a team of medical professionals. He did four months sober,” Roger said, adding that Liam started going to the gym every day and “really looking after himself.”. He added: “It wasn’t easy. He required 24-hour attention. Anyone who’s looked after an addict knows that it isn’t straightforward. It was draining, but I wanted to do it – that’s what friends are for. After four months, I truly believed he had turned a corner – but then everything went wrong.”.
Roger claimed that things quickly went downhill when Liam’s dad Geoff encouraged Liam to return to Manchester in August to appear in upcoming Netflix show Building The Band. The businessman said that he was against the idea, as Liam “knew too many people in the UK; it would be too easy for him to relapse.” Roger said he thought Liam ultimately felt the same, and stated that they had “the biggest argument” as Roger feared seeing all of Liam’s work in recovery go down the drain.
After their separation, Roger and Liam then reunited in Argentina on October 13, when Liam supposedly laid out major plans for his future - but died just three days later. “He told me he wanted to marry Kate. We discussed ideas for his proposal and then he asked me to be best man. ‘You’ll have to do a speech,’ he joked, but he told me it would be fun,” Roger said of one of their final interactions.
Kate Cassidy recently thanked fans for their support after she did a lengthy interview about the loss of her boyfriend. She said: "I wanted to come on here and start by saying thank you so much for all the kind words and support I've received over these past couple of days after going on this interview. "It was not something I undertook lightly and even the past couple of months, thank you so much for all the love and support. I can't even believe I'm sitting here filming this video right now, speaking about this like I'll never really understand.".
