Liam Payne defended his waitress girlfriend Kate Cassidy from accusations she was only with him for his money and said she made him ‘happy to be me’ and that he had ‘never felt a love like this before’.
The former One Direction star died after he fell from the third floor of the Casa Sur Palmero hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Wednesday.
The popstar had reportedly arrived in the Latin American country earlier this month to attend his ex bandmate Niall Horan’s concert.
Liam and Kate first met in October 2022 when she served him at a bar in Charleston, South Carolina, and when he asked for her number it was a dream come true for the waitress who ‘manifested’ their relationship when she was a young One Direction fan.
In a 2023 TikTok video, she explained: ‘I am the best manifester, and I’m going to show you why.’
Holding up a popsicle stick with a drawing of a brunette man in a white shirt and jeans, labelled ‘Liam. she exlpained: ‘I drew this when I was 10 years old.’
In the early days of their romance, however, it seemed not everyone was convinced about the relationship, and one fan even sent Liam a DM warning him that Kate was after his cash.
Liam Payne defended his girlfriend Kate Cassidy from accusations she was only with him for his money and said he ‘never felt a love like this before’
The former One Direction star, who fell from the third floor of the Casa Sur Palmero hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Wednesday, is pictured with Kate at a friend’s wedding in Paris in early September
Liam responded by screenshotting the message and putting it on his Instagram Stories and gushing over his new romance.
He said: ‘Gotta say you could tell me anything and I couldn’t be turned, I’ve never felt a love like I do for Katelyn. We make each other better people.’
Defending her against the gold digger accusations, he said: ‘If it was just for the money I’d give her all of it.
‘It’s not though (please remember I’m hella sexy) and I know I’m fun and a loveable person.
‘And I don’t give a f**k to say that for the first time in my life I’m happy to be me and that’s priceless.’
In a TikTok video shared in September, Kate told the story of how she and Liam met at the bar she worked at and how she almost gave him the wrong phone number.
She said: ‘I worked at this bar/lounge place called Ritual. Me and all my friends worked there, it was only my second week at work and I didn’t want to work every weekend.
‘They put me on schedule for week two and I really wanted to get off. I tried everything in my power to get off and nothing worked out.
Before the singer’s death, he had stared a final Snapchat post showed him happily posing with Kate as they looked into a mirror. A picture originally taken last August
In a TikTok video uploaded on September 20, Kate recounted how she and Liam met and how their relationship almost never happened at all
‘On the way to work my manager texted me and was like “Liam Payne from One Direction is here, you’re going to be taking care of him tonight.” ‘
Kate admitted she was ‘freaking out’ when she had to approach Liam’s table and ended up chickening out at first.
She said: ‘When I first approached him, I got nervous and stopped and turned around. I guess we made awkward eye contact for a second.
‘We talk about it because he said to (his friend) Conor, “Oh my God, did you see that girl walking over here? I’m not leaving this bar until I get her number.”
‘Then two minutes later I come back around. He was like, “is there anyway I can get a table inside?” He’s literally sitting inside drinking red bulls and I didn’t think anything of it, I just thought he was overly friendly, I didn’t think he was flirting with me.’
Kate told how everytime she approached his table, Liam offered her to sit down with him and soon asked for her number.
She said: ‘Everytime I came to the table to check up on him, he’d be like sit down! I have family in London and I was like, “Oh I’m going to London to see my cousin” and he was like, “I’d love to be your tour guide when you come.” I was like, OK I’m picking up the sense that you’re flirting with me.
‘He asked for my number and I didn’t realise you had to put the +1 because I’m from America. I just my area code, the 201 and he tried texting me and it kept going green, not delivered.
‘He thought I’d put the wrong number in as in like, not interested. I was freaking out all night and then he realised I forgot to put the +1 and it went through.’
Kate was prepared for the spotlight that her romance with Liam brought thanks to her own career as an influencer and social media star (pictured together in 2023)
She later relocated to London, but the globetrotting beauty regularly treated her 109K Instagram followers to stunning views of her trips across the world
They suffered another mishap later that evening after Kate’s phone died when she went to bed and Liam thought she had blocked his number.
She recalled: ‘That night, I actually didn’t plug my phone in before bed so when I woke up in the morning it was dead. Once he finally got the number to go through, he thought I blocked him because it didn’t say delivered.
‘The next morning I texted him and was like so sorry for getting back to you so late, what time is your flight back to England? He was like, before I leave for the airport I can come see you for lunch.
‘We went for lunch which went really well and then went bowling and then went on a ghost tour, we basically had one of our first dates in a graveyard.
‘He extended his flight and then extended it again the next day so he ended up in Charleston for three days. That’s the story of how we met.
‘Literally, everything happens for a meeting. Don’t get off work because you want to go to a party because you never know, you could end up meeting your future husband.’
Kate was prepared for the spotlight that her romance with Liam brought thanks to her own career as an influencer and social media star.
Kate, who was born in New Jersey, had prepared for a career by attending Coastal Carolina University, which she graduated from in 2021.
She later relocated to London, but the globetrotting beauty regularly treated her 109K Instagram followers to stunning views of her trips across the world.
She has posted herself in sizzling outfits at Italy’s Lake Como, in Milan, Paris, St. Tropez, Rome and Spain, among other glamorous locales.
A month after Liam and Kate made their public debut, they made it clear that the relationship was serious when he appeared again on her Instagram in a post documenting her trip to Rome
In May of 2023, Liam and Kate were reported to have broken up. A source told The Sun he was focused on his music while she had move out and gone back to the US
Last year, the two made a show-stopping appearance together at the Wimbledon tennis championships.
Liam also occasionally joined his girlfriend on her Instagram page, though he was a rare sight.
His romance with Kate came just six months after the tumultuous end of his engagement to Maya Henry.
Earlier this year, amid Payne’s relationship with Cassidy, Henry reignited their conflicts when she published a novel with thinly veiled characters appearing to stand in for herself and her ex, with his book avatar urging the female lead to get an abortion after she got pregnant.
Then, just two days before his death, Henry sent a cease-and-desist letter to Payne to prevent his alleged attempts to repeatedly contact her. She also accused him of ‘weaponizing’ his fans against her in the missive.
A month after Payne and Cassidy made their public debut, they made it clear that the relationship was serious when he appeared again on her Instagram in a post documenting her trip to Rome.
Although they had been coy about their relationship, two came together for a hug in the post.
In May of 2023, Liam and Kate were reported to have broken up. Rumors of a split had been swirling after the two hadn’t been pictured together since April.
A source told The Sun at the time that Payne was more focused on his music, and Cassidy had allegedly moved out and gone back home to the US.
But in June, the two were pictured together holding hands, signaling that they were back together.
They were spotted leaving Chiltern Firehouse in London after attending Annabel’s 60th Anniversary Party together.
Kate appears to have been with Liam in his final days.
Ka appears to have been with Liam in his final days on a trip to Argentina
In a rush of posts just minutes before his death, he said it was ‘A lovely day in Argentina’ and revealed the two had ‘been waking up at 1pm everyday’ on the trip
On Snapchat, he appeared to have documented the couple’s trip to Argentina, and in a rush of Snapchat posts just minutes before his death, he noted that the couple had been ‘waking up at 1pm everyday.’
He also posted a somber shot of himself, which he captioned: ‘Lovely day in Argentina ❤️.’
Significantly, Kate appeared with Liam in his final post, but the photo was not new.
Instead, it had previously appeared on Kate’s Instagram on August 29, 2023, in a carousel celebrating her boyfriend’s 30th birthday.
It’s still unclear if the throwback photo held special significance for Payne, but it ended up being the final image he shared with his fans before his untimely death.
Just days before his death, Kate shared a touching post, dedicated to the singer.
The blonde beauty took a snap of the popstar riding horseback in the countryside The Sun reports.
Liam could be seen wearing a casual grey T-shirt as he sat on the horse and spoke to someone who appeared to be helping him.
Over the picture, Kate wrote: ‘I am very grateful for the simple things in life’.
Before the singer’s death, he had stared a final Snapchat post showed him happily posing with Kate as they looked into a mirror. A picture originally taken last August.
Further posts from the final moments of the star’s life showed him enjoying lunch in his hotel room, where he revealed the pair had been ‘waking up at 1pm every day’ and deciding on Forest Gump as a Halloween costume.
On Wednesday, thousands of fans gathered outside the hotel where Liam died
Some were pictured lighting candles and praying for the singer
A further tragic selfie was captioned: ‘Lovely day in Argentina’ before the star shared a photo of his hotel, writing: ‘Happy I got some time away’ followed by a heart emoji.
He shared a further photo with Kate captioned: ‘Quality time.’
Following reports of his death city ambulance service provider spokesman Alberto Crescenti said Mr Payne had fallen around 40 metres and suffered ‘severe injuries which were incompatible with life.’
He said: ‘The alarm was raised at 5.04pm local time saying a person was lying in an internal patio at Casa Sur.
‘At 5.11pm an ambulance arrived and the man was certified dead.
‘Afterwards we found out he had been a famous singer. Unfortunately the injuries he had suffered as a result of the fall proved to be fatal. There was no possibility of resuscitating him.’
Liam began his pursuit to stardom when he initially auditioned for X Factor in 2008.
At only 14-years-old Liam impressed judges with his own version of Fly Me To The Moon by Frank Sinatra – but was later eliminated from the show.
However Payne gave his singing career another go auditioning for the competition again in 2010, where he quickly shot to fame as part of One Direction.
He and his former bandmates Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, were brought together by Simon Cowell and former judge Nicole Scherzinger who saw their potential as a group.
After releasing five albums with one of the biggest boybands of all time, Liam released his first solo album titled LP1 in 2019.
His singles Strip That Down co-written with Ed Sheeran climbed its way to number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart that same year.
Over the course of his music career, the popstar collaborated with the likes of J Balvin, French Montana, Dixie D’Amelio and A Boogie Wit da Hoodie.
He was previously in a relationship with British pop sensation Cheryl Cole and the pair welcomed their son Bear Grey on March 22, 2017. The parents later split in 2018.
He was previously in a relationship with British pop sensation Cheryl Cole and the pair welcomed their son Bear Grey on March 22, 2017
Following his romance with the Girls Aloud singer, Liam had an on-and-off relationship with ex-fiancée Maya Henry, and the pair called it quits in May, 2022.
