Liam Payne dead: One Direction singer found in Buenos Aires, local ...

The couple have been romantically linked since 2022.

Tributes have begun rolling in for the late pop star.

Representatives for his ex-fiancée Maya Henry told The Daily Mail she was “obviously in shock”.

Payne had been in the midst of a struggle with ex-partner Maya Henry. This week Metro reported he was facing legal action from the model, 23, who had “issued a cease and desist letter” and claimed he had been “ceaselessly contacting her, using different iCloud accounts to continue to reach out”.

The couple broke up in 2022. The pair went public with their relationship in 2019, with Payne proposing in 2020, before they split for the first time in 2021, with Payne saying he had “not been very good at relationships”.

In 2023 Payne was rushed to hospital with severe kidney pain while visiting Lake Como in Italy. The incident came after he’d been forced to cancel the South American leg of his tour due to a “serious kidney infection”, which previously saw him hospitalised.

Payne shares a son with ex-partner Cheryl Cole, Bear Grey, born in 2017. The following year Cole confirmed their two-and-a-half year relationship had ended.

“We still have so much love for each other as a family,” she announced on Twitter. “Bear is our world and we ask that you respect his privacy as we navigate our way through this together.”

Cole, a UK singer and actress, first met Payne on The X Factor when he was 14 and she was 24.

Payne rose to international stardom as one-fifth of the English-Irish boy band One Direction, who formed and placed third on the seventh series of The X Factor in 2010.

The band soon became teen idols, often sparking widespread hysteria among fans. The group is one of the best-selling boy groups of all time.

One Direction has sold over 65 million albums worldwide and netted four UK number-one singles and four number-one albums.

Born in Wolverhampton, England, in 1993, he was just 14 when he first auditioned for The X Factor in 2008, moving past the first round after performing Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me to the Moon. Payne was first eliminated at the Boot Camp, until host Simon Cowell - who would later sign One Direction to his record label - changed his mind and asked Payne to return. He was eliminated again at the judge’s houses, but was encouraged by Cowell to come back “in two years” - which he did.

He auditioned again in 2010 and was put into the group with Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles. They went on to release five studio albums: Up All Night (2011), Take Me Home (2012), Midnight Memories (2013), Four (2014), and Made in the A.M. (2015).

In 2016 One Direction announced they were breaking up; Zayn Malik had left the band in 2015.

After the band’s dissolution, Payne embarked on a solo career - releasing the hit single Strip that Down in 2017 and his debut album LP1 in December 2019.

At the time of writing, Payne has more than 4.6 million monthly listeners on Spotify as a solo artist. His 2017 single Strip that Down, featuring Migos rapper Quavo, has been streamed over a billion times on the app, and sold 11.5 million copies worldwide. Payne has sold more than 23 million singles and three million albums as a solo artist, and has been streamed nearly 6 billion times, according to Capitol Records.

Throughout his solo career, he also released collaborations with Rita Ora, J Balvin, French Montana, Dixie D’Amelio, and A Boogie Wit da Hoodie.

Payne had been public about struggling after the break up of One Direction seven years ago.

In 2023 Payne admitted he was in “bad shape” the previous year, revealing he’d spent 100 days at a Louisiana-based wellness clinic.

He had also been open about his mental health, and revealed he found solace in art and poetry.

Payne discussed his journey to sobriety in a Youtube video, “There is a point when you hit rock bottom and you realise you have got to do something different as whatever you are doing right now isn’t working for you,” he said. “There is no point trying to be a dad when you have nothing to teach.”

Taking to YouTube he apologised for his past behaviour and revealed that his One Direction bandmates had supported him during difficult periods. “The rest of the boys have really stuck by me and when I needed them most they kind of came to my rescue, even Zayn.”

The bandmates had a falling out following comments Payne made during an interview with Paul Logan for his podcast, for which Payne later apologised.

He’d also revealed the members feuded during the early years of their fame. “At first we didn’t get on at all. We absolutely hated each other,” Payne told Hits Radio in 2019. “We hid it well.”

Last year fans began speculating that a One Direction reunion was on the cards after Payne told The Sun On Sunday they had “started a new group chat”, with Horan and Tomlinson also helping Payne record his album in LA.

Payne was reportedly “desperate” to get the band back together.

Investigations into Payne’s death are understood to be ongoing.

- More to come