Liam Payne funeral: Stars including Harry Styles, Niall Horan and Cheryl Tweedy among mourners
A host of celebrities, including Harry Styles and Niall Horan, have gathered to farewell ex-One Direction member Liam Payne.
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IN LONDON
Liam Payne’s loved ones, including a host of celebrities such as Harry Styles, Simon Cowell and James Corden, have gathered at a 12th-century church in England to farewell the late singer.
Payne, 31, died on October 16 after falling from the third-floor balcony of his hotel room in Argentina.
Girls Aloud members Kimberley Walsh and Nicola Roberts were among the first of the mourners to arrive, and were greeted by former One Direction publicist Simon Jones, who now works with their former bandmate, Cheryl Tweedy.
Tweedy and Payne dated between 2016 and 2018 and share a seven-year-old son, Bear.
Damian Hurley - the 22-year-old son of actress Liz Hurley - was also seen arriving, as well as Payne’s girlfriend, US influencer Kate Cassidy.
Payne’s former One Direction bandmates - Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik - had what’s understood to be their first full reunion in nine years as they gathered to farewell their friend.
Also among the limited invited guests was former X Factor judge Simon Cowell and his fiancée Lauren Silverman, as well as actor and TV host James Corden.
Details of the intimate funeral service were kept tightly under wraps, although it was known that it would be held at a location in the Home Counties (the areas surrounding London: Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Surrey).
Payne grew up in Wolverhampton in the county of Staffordshire.
While the exact location wasn’t shared, pictures showed a flower garland being set up around the historic church ahead of the 1pm start time (BST).
A floral tribute in the shape of bowling pins – a nod to one of Payne’s favourite pastimes – was also seen outside the building, as well as a white floral arrangement reading “DADDY”.
Shortly after 1pm, Payne’s coffin was brought to the church in a horse-drawn carriage.
It was later carried into the service by several pallbearers, their heads bowed with emotion.
Payne’s devastated parents, Geoff and Karen, stood at the church entrance, watching on as their son’s coffin passed by.
After the service ended, a priest lead the procession outside the church with pallbearers again carrying the navy blue coffin.
The funeral was followed by a wake.
In the lead-up to the devastating send-off, a source opened up about the “difficult” day to The Sun.
“His family have gone to great lengths to put together the perfect service and give him the send off he deserves,” the source disclosed.
“Liam may have been a global superstar but to [parents] Geoff and Karen he will always be their little boy. It is going to be an incredibly difficult day.”
Authorities in Buenos Aires confirmed earlier this month they had brought charges against a friend of Payne’s, a staff member from the CasaSur Palermo Hotel and an alleged drug dealer.
A hotel worker, believed to be a housekeeper, was charged with providing illegal drugs, including cocaine, to Payne during his brief stay at the hotel.
Officials said in a press release that Payne “was not fully conscious or was experiencing a state of noticeable decrease or loss of consciousness at the time of the fall.”
Further, the press release stated in the moments before his death, and in the period of at least 72 hours prior, Payne had “polydrug use of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his body”.
Prosecutors also ruled out “self-harm of any kind and/or physical intervention by third parties.”
Payne died from injuries sustained from the fall. A toxicology report showed Payne had a cocktail of drugs in his system, including cocaine, crack and benzodiazepine, which is a type of depressant.
After news broke of his son’s passing, Payne’s father travelled out to South America to help authorities bring his body back to the UK.
Payne first found fame in 2010 after auditioning for The X Factor UK as a solo artist, which saw him instead put into One Direction by the judges.
The new band came in third on the show, but quickly became international superstars – the biggest British group since The Beatles.
During their five years together, One Direction sold 70 million records.
Two years before his tragic death, Payne said in an interview that he hoped his legacy would be that of being a “nice guy” rather than a pop star.
“Honestly, just being a nice guy. I’d rather be known for being a nice guy than anything else,” he revealed.
Originally published as Liam Payne funeral: Stars including Harry Styles, Niall Horan and Cheryl Tweedy among mourners
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