Liam Payne donated thousands of pounds to various GoFundMe pages in the month before his death, it has emerged.
Payne passed away earlier this week at the age of 31 after falling from a third-floor balcony at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Per The Guardian, the Argentinian prosecutor’s office revealed that Payne’s cause of death was due to multiple traumas and internal and external bleeding.
It has now transpired that the former One Direction star had donated large sums of money to various people on GoFundMe in the month before his death and at one point donated £10,000 in one night.
He is thought to have given £2,300 to a 28-year-old man named Jack from America who had been diagnosed with stage 4 B-cell lymphoma. The same night, he donated £770 to a school shooting survivor, and £2,223 to a four-year old stroke survivor named Kailyn.
He also gave £3,833 to four-year-old Macy Shepard, who was diagnosed with a stage 2 Wilms tumour on her kidney.
Payne had spoken about his charitable acts in a series of Snapchat videos. “I’ve always felt really lucky to be in the position that I’m in and my life aspiration has been to be a superhero… but I can’t fly, I’m not a great mechanic, I wasn’t affected by radiation, and I’m not incredibly strong,” he said.
“All I know is there are websites out there for you to be able to donate to sick children that need your help.
“It doesn’t matter how small the donation is, or how big the donation is. All that matters is you look into that child’s eyes and you realise… as a father, it hits me slightly differently because I look at them and if that was my child, I would want everyone in the world to just look at me. Please, look at me and help me.”
He continued: “The last few nights, I’ve been spending some time on GoFundMe, a fantastic website. I’m not sure about the tip thing, though, guys, you need to work that out, because that’s not right; we should be giving the tips to the kids, man.
“I’d like to understand more. If anyone from GoFundMe wants to get in touch with me to tell me how this works, I would love to know, but I’ve been going on night by night by night, trying to finish off people’s donations so that they can get the operations they need.
“It’s despicable that, in 2024, these kids are having to pay for these medical things that would be free in my country.”
Last night, Payne’s father Geoff joined a vigil of fans who had gathered outside the hotel where he died and was seen reading messages and looking at the flowers placed outside in memory of his son.
Per Sky News, Geoff thanked fans for being there and paused to pick up and kiss photos of Payne.
Payne’s family issued a statement earlier this week, saying: “We are heartbroken. Liam will forever live in our hearts and we’ll remember him for his kind, funny and brave soul. We are supporting each other the best we can as a family and ask for privacy and space at this awful time.”
One Direction’s surviving members Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles shared a joint statement on Payne’s death, where they expressed their devastation, and that they would need time “to grieve and process the loss of our brother, who we loved dearly.”
Yesterday Cheryl, Payne’s ex-partner and mother to his 7-year-old son Bear, spoke out about the “indescribably painful” loss and urged people to “give Liam the little dignity he has left”.
Kate Cassidy, Payne’s girlfriend at the time of his death, also spoke out yesterday, saying: “I have been at a complete loss. Nothing about the past few days have felt real. I ask and pray that you’ll give me the grace and space to navigate this in private.”
Others have laid blame on the music industry, with Sharon Osbourne recently saying it had let him down. “Where was this industry when you needed them?” she said. “You were just a kid when you entered one of the toughest industries in the world. Who was in your corner?”
Bruce Springsteen has shared his thoughts about the pressures young people in the music industry face in the wake of the news. “It’s a business that puts enormous pressures on young people. Young people don’t have the inner facility or the inner self yet to be able to protect themselves from a lot of the things that come with success and fame. So they get lost in a lot of the difficult and often pain inducing [things]… whether it’s drugs or alcohol to take some of that pressure off.
“I understand that very well,” he continued, adding that both he and his band have all “wrestled with their own issues”.