Who is Kate Cassidy? Liam Payne’s girlfriend left Argentina days before his death

Former One Direction star Liam Payne was dating model Kate Cassidy, who was with him in Argentina before returning to the United States days before his death.

Payne, 31, fell from the third floor of his hotel room in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on October 16, as confirmed by staff at Police Station 14B.

On Wednesday afternoon, authorities received a call at 5:04 p.m. from the hotel manager, who said Payne was acting aggressively and may have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Responders from Police Station 14B and the Emergency Medical Attention System (SAME) arrived to find Payne’s body in the interior courtyard of the CasaSur hotel. A prosecutor and local authorities are investigating the causes of the singer’s death, with the help of the municipal police.

Two days before his death, Cassidy left the singer in Argentina. On Monday, she uploaded a video to TikTok announcing that she was returning home to Florida after spending two weeks with Payne in Argentina. The couple were in Buenos Aires to attend their former bandmate Niall Horan’s concert. News week emailed a Cassidy spokesperson for comment outside of normal business hours Thursday.

“I was so ready to leave. Honestly, I love South America, but I hate staying in one place for too long. And we were supposed to be there for 5 days, turned into two weeks and I was like: “I have to go, go home,” she said in the video, which documented her trip back to the United States.

The 25-year-old said she had a strange rash before her flight due to anxiety. So when she finally landed, she was “very happy to be home. It was so relieving.”

In a TikTok video uploaded on September 20, Cassidy shared how she and Payne met — and it almost didn’t happen. According to the model, they started dating in October 2022 after meeting at a bar in Charleston, South Carolina called Ritual.

Cassidy had just started working there two weeks before meeting the singer and had tried to get out of work that evening.

“They gave me a schedule for the second week and I was like, ‘I really want to get through this.’ So I did everything in my power to get off work that weekend and, literally nothing was working,” Cassidy said.

“So, on my way to work, my manager texted me and she said, ‘Liam Payne from One Direction is here… you’re going to take care of him tonight.’ So he was out there eating his food and I had to go up to him and I was pretty freaked out.

“When I first approached him, I got nervous and like turned around and went behind the bar…I guess we made awkward eye contact for a second. It’s so funny now, we’re talking about it, because he literally told (his friend) Conor, he was like, ‘Oh my God, have you seen this girl walking in here I’m not leaving this bar until I get her number? .'”

Cassidy said that when she spoke with Payne, she didn’t think he was affectionate, just too friendly. Everything changed when he asked her for her number. Later that night, she panicked when she realized she hadn’t included the area code.

“He asked me for my number and I didn’t realize I had to put +1 because I’m obviously from America. So I just put in my area code, 201, and he literally tried to text me and it, like , kept turning green, didn’t get delivered,” Cassidy said.

“He literally thought I put the wrong number, like I wasn’t interested. I was freaking out all night and then he realized I forgot to put the +1 and it passed .”

Once the incident was resolved, the two men decided to meet before Payne’s flight back to England.

“So we had lunch; it went really well, and then we went bowling afterward, which was kind of cute; there was a bowling alley next door. And then after that we did a ghost tour, so basically we had, like: one of our first dates in a cemetery,” Cassidy continued.

“I missed the part where he ended up extending his flight for another day, sorry. Anyway, he extended his flight, then he ended up extending it again the next day, so he ended up staying in Charleston for three days after arriving, like the original flight. I guess he must have really liked Charleston and that’s pretty much the story of how we met.

Two months after they started dating, the couple stepped out together for the first time on the red carpet when they attended the premiere of All these voicesthe documentary by Payne’s former bandmate Louis Tomlinson.

Pablo Policicchio, a spokesman for the Buenos Aires municipality’s security ministry, told The Associated Press in a statement that Payne “threw himself from his bedroom balcony.” Policicchio added that police were dispatched to the hotel to respond to a call about an “aggressive man who may be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”

Payne rose to fame as part of the globally successful boy band One Direction, alongside Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Tomlinson and Horan. The group was formed on the British talent show The X Factor in 2010.

After One Direction’s hiatus in 2016, Payne pursued a solo career, releasing songs such as “Strip That Down” and “Bedroom Floor.” He had a 7-year-old son, Bear Gray Payne, from his previous relationship with singer Cheryl, known as Cheryl Cole when she was in the band Girls Aloud.

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