Before we get into the episode, we want to issue a trigger warning. We touch on themes around suicide and drug use. Hello, and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm Sophie Torbah, I'm.
Amy Shauber, and I'm Kate Torba.
It is so exciting to finally be back after maternity leave.
It's been eighteen weeks.
It's good to have you back, and it feels very nostalgic because we have decided to move back to the original OG room, which we recorded in before you went on maternity leave. Yeah, you guys were all over the place. I used to watch the videos on Instagram and be like, what room are they recording in? At the moment, it
is weird to be back. I didn't think I would be away for so long because I had this vision in my head that it would be really easy to bring a newborn baby around with me to recordings and stuff, and I quickly learned that no, it wasn't. And I definitely don't think that you expected this to be the episode to be returning on because news broke last week of the sudden passing of former One Direction singer Liam Payne. We quickly decided that we wanted to investigate this very
laid and devastating story. We would consider ourselves One Direction fans. We went to their concert in Adelaide. It was incredible, but I wouldn't say we were part of the fandom. We didn't have Twitter accounts, so I think we were too old to be part of the fandom. I definitely think if I was a teenager at the time, I could see myself getting involved very heavily on all of the Twitter action and also even taking part in writing the different fiction book.
You would not have written fan fiction, surely.
I don't know.
I mean I love writing.
As a teenager, I could see myself, particularly if I lived in the UK, being swept up in that. And I think that's why there are so many complex feelings around Liam's death, because for so many people he represented such a magical part of their teenage years. But some people just can't move past the recent allegations made by
his ex fiance, Maya Henry. Yeah, because a week before the fatal fall issued Liam with a cease and desist letter, and she also appeared on a podcast detailing the alleged abuse that she suffered at the.
Hands of Liam.
We are going to be touching on that later in today's episode. But I think that this just adds to the complexity around fans feelings. You kind of don't know what to feel at the moment.
Yeah, and TikTok.
Is a very divisive place at the best of times, but particularly for one direction fans at the moment, because I don't know about you, guys, but my for you page has just been all about Liam. I'm having his girlfriend, Kate Cassidy's TikTok's popping up everywhere right look, and there are a lot of one direction fans sharing their grief
and how they're mourning. And the comment section is just so brutal because there are the people that are saying, oh, he's a horrible person because of these allegations, and then there are other people who are idolizing him even more now that he's past. And this story has been moving so quickly over the weekend, and with the way that the social media algorithm works, not everyone is getting the
full picture. There's been in so much speculation and a lot of conspiracy theories, which is why we want to discuss the news that has come to light since his death in a very nuanced way.
So let's get into it from the start.
So, as we know, on October sixteenth, Liam Payne tragically died after falling from the third floor of his hotel balcony in Buenos Aires. Now, in the hours prior to his death, Liam was said to be acting erratically in the hotel lobby and appeared to be under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Witnesses say he was seen arguing with a woman about money, and he also smashed his laptop. An American guest spoke to the media about his encounter with Liam that day, saying this.
We had multiple encounters with Liam. Multiple times had come down to the lobby, was causing a servance, got being escorted back up to his room. There is an incident where he was smashing his laptop in the lobby, and then the final time he came back down, he actually passed out in the lobby the hotel started convulsing a little bit and had to be physically taken back up to his room. And that was about five minutes before the eventual incident.
Now, as you heard there, hotel staff physically escorted Liam back to the suite he was staying in, leaving him alone in the room, which had a balcony overlooking in internal courtyard and Paul Local police said they received calls from hotel staff asking for help with an aggressive man who could be under the effects of drugs and alcohol. In audio obtained by the media, the hotel worker told police when he is conscious, he is destroying the entire
room and we need you to send someone. They added that the guest life was at risk because his room had a balcony. Now when police arrived, Liam had already fallen fourteen meters.
To his death.
This is just so horrifying and what does not sit well with me is why Liam was left alone in this hotel room, because it is clear that he was severely under the influence of drugs and he was having some sort of episode. I just think it's disturbed because, as we heard from that witness's account, he was convulsing and then collapsed in the lobby, and instead of waiting with him and getting him medical care, they physically took him back up to his room and then left him
there by himself. And it is very clear from hearing this audio recording that the balcony was a big concern of theirs, yet they left him alone. I do wonder if there was a patron of the hotel acting in this way that wasn't a celebrity, if this is how the hotel would have responded, because I really do think Liam's fame had something to do with the way they managed this crisis. I'm wondering if they didn't want to attract any negative attentional media around the way that they
handled him. I also think it has to do with how he obtained the drugs, which we are going to talk about later in the episode.
What adds an.
Extra layer to this situation is that at the height of his fame with One Direction, Liam said he was often locked in a hotel room due to the craziness that surrounded the band, and in a twenty twenty one interview with Steve even Bartlet from The Diary of a CEO, Liam said it left him feeling lonely and trapped.
Let's have a listened to what he said.
My dad said it from day one. Lonely hotel rooms man getting locked in that room is not fun. The problem we had in the band, and I don't blame anybody for this. I don't want to seem like I'm whining or moment, oh my god, look at my life, whatever, but it feels to me like when we were in the band, the best way to secure us because of how big it got was just lock us in our
rooms and of course what's in the room minibar. So at a certain point I thought, well, I'm going to have a party for one and that just seemed to carry on throughout many years of my life. And then you look back, how long you've been drinking and stuff for you're like Jesus Christ, that's a long time, even for someone who's you know, as long as I was.
As wild.
But it was like the only way you could get frustration out in the day or being like trapped. And you know, I spoke about to somebody about this, and in child development, you know, as a team, the one thing you need is freedom to make choices and freedom to do stuff. And it was the one thing that although we could do anything we wanted, it seemed from the outside that we were always locked in a room at night, and then it will be car, hotel room,
stage seeing loocked. So it was like they pulled the dosk clough off let us out for a minute and it and then he's like back underneath it, and I'm like, get.
It's interesting that it was easier for them to just lock the boys in a room rather than dealing with the chaos outside. I think it was more about controlling them. Yeah, and it's fascinating that they were in a hotel room by themselves. That they didn't have them bunking in with the other band members, probably because they knew that at that age fights.
Can break out. Well, there are a lot of fights.
Yeah, we've learned about how the boys didn't really all get along, and maybe that was at a time when they couldn't all be in a room together. I mean, yeah, I think a lot of one direction fans had this fantasy that they were all best friends. But with any random teenagers being put together, there's always going to be arguments, particularly when you have that level of fame and you're
in an environment that's not normal. There have been a lot of eerie clips that have been resurfacing since Liam's death. One of them that I keep thinking about is in this clip where he spoke about the pranks that he pool whilst he was on tour and in one of them, he scaled down a rooftop to escape security.
Let's row to what he said.
We then got really dan and started having a bit big wat fight. But it was like it was during the time of like the Ace Booky Challenge and everyone's turn like whatever anyway me and I want to say, Louis that I could be wrong or like wet paper towel in whatever.
I mean.
His tourmenters were like locked in his bathroom and I was like, I knew they were getting a really big thing of water. So I was like, I'm going to go out here. And I were two stories off, but in these days, I was.
Like the cat burglar. I would climb everything.
So I climbed all the way down these two stories.
With this in mind, it's really not surprising that in the first twenty four hours after his death, some fans were convinced that Liam was attempting to jump from his balcony into the pool. So he was staying in a hotel suite on the third floor, which had a balcony looking out to the communal pool area, and rumors started circulating on TikTok that Liam had been denied access to the pool by staff due to his very intoxicated state.
So once he was locked away.
In his room, the theory was that he attempted to jump into the pool from his balcony and he fell short.
Because his body was.
Found very close to the swimming pool. I think this theory arose because a lot of one direction fans are grappling, obviously with this news and trying to make sense of why he died and how, and a lot of people don't want to consider that potentially it could have been suicide, so they're thinking, well.
Here's a fun guy. Maybe he was just jumping into the pool.
I think we need to get into what he was actually doing in Argentina. So he was there earlier in the month with his girlfriend Kate Cassidy to attend his former bandmate Nile Horns concert, and before departing for Argentina, Liam posted a snapchat saying he was attending the concert as he wanted to square up a couple of things with Nile.
Yeah, so today I am going to gine Argentina. U damn my Argentina. Going to Argentina one because we have to, and two because we want to, and three because niall Horan's playing down there, and I think we might just go and say hello. It's been a while since me and Nile have spoken. We've got a lot to talk about, and I would like to square up a couple things with the boy. No bad vibe or anything like that, but just we need to talk.
Liam's behavior at Nile's concert raised a lot of eyebrows, and a lot of the clips of him there actually went viral on TikTok, So there were clips of him singing along to Nile's songs and almost doing his own meet and greet with fans, and he was accused of trying to steal attention away from Nile, and fans began comparing the way that Liam behaved at the concert to
how Harry's Styles behaved at a recent concert back in August. So, while Harry was outs concert, he appeared in the backstage area and he ducked out before too many people noticed him, whereas Liam appeared to be lapping up all of the attention and he was very front and center in the box. I think that's such an unfair comparison when you do consider Liam's fame compared to Harry Styles's fame, Like I don't think Harry Styles could have sat in a box.
Yeah.
Well, the day before Liam died, I remember looking on TikTok and there were so many people recreating his moment and poking fun at him, and he started to be branded as cringe and he was slammed for acting really awkward. But it seems like a lot of fans think that this may have been a cry for help, and one user wrote he wasn't stealing attention, he was saying goodbye.
That is so sad.
Now, what has led to even more fascination in this story is that Liam's girlfriend, Kate Cassidy, is an American TikToker who was documenting the trip at the time. So before Liam's death, Kate originally had forty thousand followers on Instagram and around two hundred thousand on TikTok. It's quite eerie because one of her tiktoks actually popped up for me a week before he.
Died, and I'm like, I haven't seen Liam Payne for so long.
Yeah, because he kept being in these random tiktoks where he was doing fit checks and he just looked like he was playing the doting boyfriend part really well. Well, one of those fit checks in particular, actually worried a lot of fans because he kept popping in and out of the frame and she kept saying like, tell them what you're wearing, and he was just being very aloof.
And people are like, is he okay?
Now?
Since Liam's death, Kate Cassidy has had an influx of followers. She now has six hundred and forty eight thousand on Instagram and nearly one million on TikTok. So I actually thought this was a new relationship, but they've been together since October twenty twenty two. They were first spotted attending a Halloween party dressed as Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee. Did you realize that they met because she was a waitress at a restaurant he was at.
No.
Isn't that like everyone's dream to meet someone famous like that? Well that makes a lot of sense, because I think a lot of one direction would have wished something like that would happen to them, and Liam actually ended up sharing some troll messages he got about Kate when they first started dating. So someone accused Kate of only being with him for his money, and he responded publicly on his Instagram story writing got to say. You could tell
me anything, and I couldn't be turned. I've never felt a love like I do for Caitlin. We make each other better people. 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 lovable person, and I don't give a fuck to say that. For the first time in my life, I'm happy to be me and that's priceless.
Now.
The couple have been spending time between London and Florida, and recently Kate documented them moving into this new mansion in Florida. She did a full house tour. It's just so eerie looking back at these tiktoks. Yeah, and they also recently adopted a rescue dog together, and in one of Liam's last Snapchat stories, which actually was put up an hour before his death, he spoke about how he
was looking forward to getting home to his dog, Nala. Well, Kate actually left the trip early to get back to their dog, so the media are reporting that Liam allegedly pleaded with her to stay in Argentina with him and an apparent friend of the influencer told the Post Liam didn't want Kate to leave Argentina. He wanted her to stay. She says he begged her to stay now. The source also said that the argument was actually a little more
heated than you'd think. The sad thing is they were only supposed to be in Argentina for five days, but Liam was forced to extend the trip to two weeks
because his US visa application was rejected. In order to renew his immigration visa, Liam had to travel abroad, so a close friend said that that's why he chose to fly to Argentina, because he could watch Nale's performance and then also make his visa application at the US Embassy in Argentina, and that visa was initially refused because Liam owned up to the fact that he had abused drugs and alcohol in the past, and the only way to get the embassy to reconsider his application was if he
underwent psychiatric and medical testing, which he did, which pushed out the length of their trip. His friend told The Daily Mail that he passed all the medical and psychiatric testing, but actually passed away before he could have his passport
stamped and the visa renewed. It's really sad because Kate ended up leaving Argentina two days before Liam died, and she ended up documenting her trip home on TikTok, and I feel like that adds a whole layer to this story because I've never known a celebrity death where you can actually go back and watch almost in real time unfolding. It's just so weird to be able to see the footage of them leaving for the trip and then her on her way back home, which is clearly why her
TikTok is blown up. I mean, her videos are getting over twenty million views now.
Kate said that she'd been seated in seat one D.
That's crazy, Yeah, she said, it happens quite a lot, which means that she travels at the front of the plane. She also said that she left her squish mallow with Liam, and she told her followers that she was so ready to leave and went on to say, honestly, I love South America, but I hate staying in one place for too long. There was also a deleted snapchat where Liam teased Kate about leaving him at Argentina. So he said, so it's going to be a nice day and then you're going home haha.
Loser weirdo.
Apparently, Kate ended up booking herself a ticket home because Liam couldn't tell her when he'd be ready to leave, and it was clear that she really wanted to get back home and in her routine, and the apparent sauce said that he was really unhappy about that.
He made sure that she knew that.
Reading the quotes that this source gave the media, it does appear like Liam and Kate were having a big argument before she left. However, they did push that the couple weren't having trouble. But it doesn't really match up to other news that has surfaced since Liam's passing because it was reported that two sex workers actually went to Liam's room hours before his death, and apparently their source
said that Kate was still grappling with that information. She did release a statement following Liam's death which said, I have been at a complete loss. Nothing about the past few days has felt real and we will be going into the claims about the sex workers a little bit
later in this episode. But as I touched on, it was really eerie because an hour before Liam passed away, videos were still being uploaded to his Snapchat story and I'm guessing that the videos had been scheduled in by an employee because it showed his last few days with Kate in Argentina, and in the video, Liam wasn't staying at the hotel, but he was staying at their friend Jones mansion. And these snapchats initially led to a lot of confusion because people were trying to piece it all together.
They're like, this mustn't be true because he's staying at a friend's house.
He's not even at a hotel.
Yeah, it definitely added to the speculation and conspiracy theories that maybe he had not passed away. And it was TMZ who was the first media outlet to break the news of Liam's death, and they chose to prove the validity of their story by posting a very graphic photo
of Liam's body on the hotel deck. In the photo, Liam's distinctive tattoos were shown on his arm, and any readers who clicked on an alert sent out by TMZ, whether it was a tweet or even a link shared via a text message, they were met with the gruesome images. It just horrifies me that media still act in this way. The family probably didn't even know about the news and they're reporting pictures of Liam's dead body.
That is just horrific.
To think that the family potentially could have found out that way and have seen the imagery just is so disturbing.
From someone who's.
Worked in a newsroom, I understand that journalists need proof to firm up a story in order for them to go.
To print with the breaking news.
However, I don't understand why the photos ever had to see the light of day, because if they were cited by TMZ's editorial team, that gave them the proof to accurately break the news, there was no need for anyone else to see the photos at all. Oh I completely agree, and it's not the first time TMZ has actually done something like this. So back when Kobe Bryant and his daughter passed and a helicopter crash in January twenty twenty, TMZ shared the news before police were able to notify
his family. Now Vanessa Bryant later testified in court that she learned of her husband and daughter's death through social media. Thankfully, these photos were removed on TMZ's website after a lot of backlash. But what's really scary is that new photos are popping up all over Twitter. So I've seen a lot of people creating TikTok videos warning people not to click on these images because there's apparently so many of them. I assume that they were taken by hotel staff and
guests and they've just been doing the rounds. I don't want to see any of those images, Like something like that really does stay with you, and to think about all of the young kids online that could potentially be seeing these images, because there's this gross fascination. Like, for some reason, when I heard that these images were out there, I almost wanted to look at them to know that it was true as well. It's a weird thing about being decense these sorts of graphic imagery. But it's just
such a disgusting invasion of someone's privacy. I mean, he has clearly been hounded by the paparazzi in during the heart of his fame, and now he can't even die peacefully. There's people taking photos of his body. It kind of reminds me of when Princess Diana died and there were paparazzi literally taking photos of her dying instead of getting
her help. Now, a day after his death, authorities released Limb's preliminary or topsy results which showed he died from multiple injuries sustained from the full which led to internal and external bleeding and a fractured skull. Twenty five injuries were reported, including to the skull, abdomen, and limbs. Now, the investigators suspect that lim was partially or fully unconscious when he fell from the balcony due to the position in which his body was found and also the fact
that he had no signs of defensive wounds on his hands. Yeah, because when you fall, you have this automatic reflex action, so your brain will basically tell your hands and arms to reach out to try and break your full and in this case, the autopsy results show that he did not adopt a reflex posture to protect himself, and the report also noted that there were no signs of a fight and confirmed that Liam was alone in his hotel
room at the time of his fall. There is heartbreaking vision doing the rounds on media and social media at the moment of Liam's father, Jeff, visiting the hotel room. My heart dropped when I saw it because there's this shot of him leaning against the balcony rail to see how Liam could have fallen like trying to work out was it an accident. Yeah, And in the video he
tries to fall from backwards as well as forwards. And again these are images that we shouldn't have access to, but again the ones that you just can't look away from.
Yeah.
Well, back to the autopsy. While the report said the injuries were enough to cause Liam's death, prosecutors are describing the case as suspicious and the exact cause of death is still under investigation. So at the time this was because of the likelihood that Liam had been drinking alcohol
and taking drugs that day. Now the prosecutor's office requested additional exams, including a toxicology report, and over the weekend police told TMZ that they believed Liam was under the influence of crystal, which is a drug known to cause psychotic attacks and hallucinations. It's also known to make people very aggressive. It's very unusual in Australia for police to give direct quotes like that to the media outlets, particularly TMZ,
but in Argentinea this is not clearly the case. It does really paint a new idea of what went on. So it sounds like Liam may have been under the influence and been hallucinating, which caused him to then jump, maybe thinking he was jumping into the pool or jumping into something, or to just fall.
From the bawconnected. I didn't know what he was doing.
Now, in new claims, it's being reported that investigators believe a hotel employee may have sourced the drugs for Liam before his fall.
Now, in another.
Invasion of Liam's privacy, the media were quick to publish images inside his hotel room. So the photo showed a smashed up TV, a half empty wine glass, white powder all over the suite, as well as foil which was scattered throughout the hotel room. There was also a dove soap box packet and the remains of a burnt top of a drink can which was scattered also across the room. For someone who does not do drugs, I was like, what is the significance of the soap and also of
the our foil? Well in terms of the soap, A theory on TikTok is that maybe a hotel worker transported the drugs in the dove soap box.
Oh, okay, disguise it now.
The drug klnazepan was also found in Liam's sweet which is often used to control epilepsy, involuntary spasms and also panic disorders. Now, disturbingly, these images were believed to have been released by authorities and again this would never happen in Australia or the US, but apparently it is common practice in Argentina because they don't up hold the same standards to privacy as other countries do. Liam has been very open with his fans and also the media about
his struggles with addiction, anxiety, and also suicidal thoughts. During an interview in twenty nineteen, Liam admitted that he was still lucky to be here and it's something he said
he had never spoken about with people before. Liam has been open about his journey with alcohol as well, so he initially started drinking to help him deal with processing the fame from one direction, and he said, it's almost like putting the Disney costume on before you step up on stage, and underneath the Disney costume, I was pissed quite a lot of the time because there was no other way to get your head around what was going on.
I mean, it was fun. We had an absolute blast, but there were certain parts of it where it just got a little bit toxic In July last year, he also shared a video to YouTube revealing he had a one hundred day stint in rehab. Let's have a listen to what he said.
I just ad a little bit of time out. I was just sorry for the mia. It was a few reasons why I did that. Whed to take a little bit of time out for myself actual because I kind of became somebody who I didn't really recognize anymore, and I'm sure you guys didn't either. I was so angry at what was going on around me, and instead of taking a look inwards, I decided to look outwards to everybody else.
And I just think, yeah, I just took it out on everybody else, which is just wrong really, and my own frustrations with my own career and where I kind of London, I shot everybody else, which is wrong. So obviously I want to apologize for that in the first instance, because.
That's definitely not me.
Unfortunately, this Stinton rehab was not his last, so according to the Sun newspapers, Liam actually entered a rehab facility in late July this year for drug and alcohol addiction. Now he was doing a twenty eight day addiction therapy program, but left after forty eight hours. Now back to the hotel, Casa Sir, because there have been a lot of claim circulating TikTok, the hotel staff gave Liam the illegal substances
which were found in his room. Now, this was first released on TikTok by Kimberly Clementine, and she shared a leaked voice note which was allegedly from another hotel worker. She ended up translated it to her followers because it was in Spanish. Now, the alleged hotel worker said that Liam was in the hotel for a week and was a substance user, an alcoholic, and a jerk who was very sick. He went on to allege that Liam was demanding that the hotel reps give him substances and one ended up.
Delivering the goods.
The audio then went onto allege that hotel staff tried to kick Liam out, but they couldn't when they discovered that their worker was the one who supplied him with the drugs. If this is true, it does make more sense as to why the hotel didn't want to call the police immediately when Liam seemed off. Yeah, they could have allegedly been trying to cover their tracks, and it seems like now that there is a deeper investigation into these issues, that the hotel could potentially be held responsible
for part of this. Yeah, And in the audio, the hotel worker also alleged that Liam had two sex workers in his hotel room just hours before his death, which we did touch on earlier. So when police released Liam's autopsy, they confirmed they speaking to three hotel staff and two women who visited Liam's room before his death. Now it's important to note that it's being confirmed both women had
already left the hotel when the incident occurred. Yeah, and media are now reporting that Liam was seen arguing with a woman about money in.
The lobby just hours before he fell.
It is believed to be one of these sex workers, and a witness claimed to have heard Liam say to the woman, I'll give you twenty thousand dollars just because I can. I have fifty five million and I like to help people. Now, this situation was described by the witness as being very tense, and a hotel staff member was there helping to translate the conversation to Liam because the woman spoke Spanish. With all this information coming out about the sex workers, I do really feel for Kate
Cassidy as well as Liam's family. There is some information that you don't want to know about a family member and also your boyfriend Donna. Yeah, it's be so difficult to grapple with perhaps feeling guilt over his death, not that she is responsible in any means, but you would feel bad that you had left to go back home and you weren't there when it happened. But then there's this new layer of feeling angry towards that person because they potentially have cheated on you.
Yeah.
Now, since the news of Liam's death broke, fans and the media have been digging into the past and trying to understand what has happened in the days leading up to his death. So among their discoveries is the fact that Liam's ex fiance, Maya Henry, launched legal action against Liam a few weeks before his death. So the twenty three year old had issued a ceased and desist letter against Liam, saying he had repeatedly been contacting her, her
friends and family. A spokesperson for Maya said that they issued the cease and desist following the emergence of new and concerning information with so many One Direction fans destraw and at a loss to make sense.
Of this tragedy.
They are looking for someone to blame, and that person appears to be Maya.
Now.
Maya first met Liam at a meet and greet when she was just fifteen years old. So a friend had dragged her along to a One Direction concert, and she said she instantly fell in love with the band. So among a thousand other screaming fans, Maya met the band members and snapped a quick photo with the boys. Now, that same year, Maya gained public attention of her own when her father threw her a six million dollar fifteenth
birthday party, which featured performances by Pitbull and also Nick Jonas. Now, this event catapulted her into the spotlight, and she started to build a following on Instagram and also pick up some modeling opportunities. And it wasn't until she was eighteen when she crossed paths with Liam again because she was modeling in a fashion show and Liam was also performing
at one of the parties there. Now, they were only together for three months until Liam popped the question, and during their time together, a lot was made of the fact that Maya was previously a fan, because a lot of fans were jealous of her because she was.
Living out their dream now.
They were very on and off again until in twenty twenty two when they fisially parted ways and ended their engagement. And it was in May this year that Maya released a fiction book called Looking Forward, which was a play on the name One Direction. And whilst the book is fiction, it is said to be inspired by true events. So the novel follows the story of Mallory, an aspiring model
who falls in love with Oliver, a former boy band member. Ironically, Maya says it was actually Liam who encouraged her to write the book. So when they were together, they went to the theater to see The After Movie, which is pretty wild because the movie is an adaptation of Anna Todd's fan fiction book about Harry Styles and the rest of the One Direction crew, and after the movie, Liam said to Maya, you should write a book about our relationship. Fans would love to read a book about a fan
getting to date one of the band members. So Maya had actually written a couple of children's books before and thought that this was a really good idea, and at the time, I'm sure Liam thought that this was going to be a very glowing review of their relationship. Now, in the novel, Oliver's character transforms from a clean cut, pop start into an unpredictable addict with a volatile temper. And in the book, Maya speaks about the abuse that
Mallory faced at the hands of Oliver. Now the story speaks in detail about Oliver's drug and alcohol addiction, and in one section, Maya writes about Oliver chasing Mallory with an axe. Maya has later confirmed that this incident took place in real life. Let's read out the excerpt. Suddenly I see Oliver grab something that's next to his bed, an axe. He is playfully swinging it around. He starts hitting the bed next to me with the axe, hitting
to one side of me, then the other side. I am sitting in the middle watching him hit the bed whack whack, laughing as if he is playing.
I try to laugh it off.
Next thing I know, he is ferociously whacking the white duvet with this crazed, insane look again. I freak out and start running to the guest room down the hall. Oliver is chasing me with the axe. I scream and Oliver freezes with the axe in the air. I am screaming some more. I back away and run down the hallway. I am begging him to stop. Then I'm yelling some more. I just know my throat is going to be raw tomorrow.
He doesn't seem to hear me or anything else. He is in a frenzy, heaving the axe, then shouting to himself, stomping down the hall a few steps yelling. I beg him to stop. He doesn't take any notice. I yell loud it, desperate and so afraid, not for what he might do to me, even more for what he could do to himself. He is so sloppy and out of control. Just one stumble and he could accidentally cut his own fingers, or worse, just one bad aim and dot dot. Then
it happens that one bad aim. Lifting the axe again, he plunges it into the TV. My feet hit the cold marble floor. As I try to escape, I lock myself in the guests bathroom. My back slides down the door, and I'm screaming in tears. Not only am I scared, I'm wondering how the hell I got here?
Is this real?
Wow? That is really hard to listen to. We do want to reiterate that these are unconfirmed allegations.
What I find really eerie is the mention of the TV.
After seeing photos of his TV destroyed in the hotel room, I did think of that as well. Now. In another section of Maya's book, she writes that Oliver sent Mallory's mother an unsolicited dick pit, and in the book, Maya also wrote about the main character undergoing a painful abortion that Oliver insisted she had otherwise he would leave her.
Now.
Speaking to People magazine in may Maya said, what I went through in real life is very similar to what Mallory went through in the book. I definitely did have complications and did have to go to the hospital alone. She continued, saying, if it were up to me, I wouldn't have had it done. But then also if I were to have made a different decision, than I would
have lost the person that I loved now. In the lead up to Maya's book release, she gave interviews to high profile media outlets about the book and also Liam's alleged abuse, but they have all refused to run the story due to the fear of being sued. And I'm also guessing due to Liam's star power. Now, it wasn't until Maya posted a TikTok video on the tenth of October that people started to take notice. Ironically, Maya posted a video revealing that it was in fact Zay who
threw Liam up against a wall during their one D days. Yeah, there had been a lot of speculation about this since Liam appeared on Logan Pol's podcast and he said that things got physical between him and an unnamed band member. Now, this video attracted over three million views, with some one D fans attacking Maya for talking about Lim and saying that she should get his name.
Out of her mouth.
Here's how Maya responded, y'all.
Don't even know what happens behind closed doors. Are in private. Ever since we broke up, he messages me, will blow up my phone, mind you, not only from his phone number. He It's always from different phone numbers too, so I never know where it's going to come from. He'll create new iCloud accounts to I message me, it's always a damnew ICoD account. I'm like, every time I see one pop up on my phone, I'm like, here we fucking go again. Also, will email me and he does this
when he gets his phone taken away. Also, not only me, but he'll blow up my mom's phone. Is that normal behavior to you?
She also continued, saying that he would message her friends during their relationship and ask them to come over while she was away to hook up. She then went on to accuse him of grooming his fans. Let's hear more of what she said.
He says that he prays on one direction fans because they will always be loyal to him and they won't tell on him. So it's like, okay, not only are you you and also you weaponize your own fan base.
Now, following the TikTok video, Maya said that she was flooded with messages from women claiming to have similar experiences with Lim and coming forward with fresh information. She thanked people for their overwhelming support and said she was using her voice to hold men accountable. Now, as we touched on a week before Liam's death, Maya launched legal action against him. It's quite interesting because Maya's father is a very high profile lawyer, and Maya is also planning to
start law school soon. Now, following news of the legal letter, one dfan started abusing Maya online. One called her a clout chaser and said Liam will always be more famous than you. Move on, girl, whilst another said unless you go to court or have solid proof, girly, I don't believe you, honestly, whilst another said begging on your knees.
To be popular.
It's just awful to read those sorts of commentary, particularly when it's women commenting that to women now. Two days before Liam's death, The Internet Is Dead podcast aired an interview with Maya where she went into detail about the abuse she allegedly faced from Liam. It's quite odd because The Internet Is Dead podcast is a US space podcast with a really small following so on Instagram and TikTok.
They only have around two hundred followers and as hosted by twenty three year old best friends Brittany and Samara, and they admitted that they were part of the one D fandom growing up.
Now.
I'm guessing that Maya agreed to go on their podcasts due to the fact that larger media outlets were refusing to publish her claims.
And she really.
Thanked the girls for having her on, and she seemed really genuinely appreciative to have a space.
To tell her story.
We've got to remember that while this story about Liam Payne is the biggest entertainment story of the year, a couple of weeks ago, Liam Payne's fame wasn't huge. Yeah, but at the same time, he was still in the zeitgeist because people were trolling him over his performance at Niale's concert. I also didn't like the way that this
podcast refused to use the term allegedly. Well, it is interesting that Maya chose to be on this podcast because maybe she thought they're not very educated on media law. I can get my feelings out there and then they will be liable. Yeah.
Well.
In the interview, Maya alleged that the abuse started happening after they got engaged. During Lockdown Now in what is a very eerie listen, she spoke about how Lim messaged her mum saying he wasn't going to be around for much longer.
He would always play with death and be like, well, I'm gonna die. I'm not doing well, and there was one time I tried to get them help and then he was like not taking it. He would text my mom, I'm not doing well. Have my contact me because I wouldn't respond and it's just always the same cycle and every time that, Like for example, when I announced my book, he did the same thing. He called my mom.
I think I'm not going to be around much longer.
The message is telling you that he like he might die. Like that's like such a low level of manipulation. Yeah, I'm so terrifying because it's like you feel so responsible for this person, Like if something happens, you're gonna feel really guilty about it, even though it's not your fault.
Like you like are your own person.
You don't have to take care of this human who like has traumatized you. That's like so messed up.
I'm sorry if I'm aious.
I remember when he first did that. I was like I would always because I was always like I know the lifestyle he lives and there isn't where something bad is going to happen, So I would always be like, Okay, he's saying these things. I have to help him because if I don't, I will never be able to live with myself if something does happen to him, because you know, as I said, he's a father, he has a family, Like I just want to help, and I mean up
even until my book was coming out. Even one of his friends was calling me and my mom being like, oh, you know, this isn't a good time for him. I don't think you should put the book out. You know, he's not doing well, and if something happens to him, not only are you going to blame yourself, but the whole world's going to blame you.
I listened to this full podcast on the day that the news broke about Liam's death, and my jaw was on the ground.
I couldn't believe what was being said.
And it's really bad because I think that someone should be able to talk about what happened to them, they should be able to screem it from the rooftops. But in saying that, it's really difficult to listen to the fact that friends pleaded with her to think about his mental health. In hindsight, yes, but in abusive relationships, it isn't uncommon for the abuser to use suicide as a threat to control people. And there's no way that Maya
could predict what was actually going to happen. And I'm sure it was not her intention for this to happen.
No, And I think what was.
Clear listening to the full podcast is that she really did care about Liam, because even when they were broken up, she tried to get Liam help and encouraged him to go to rehab. As soon as the news broke of Liam's death, Maya's social media accounts were flooded with death threats and one defense holding her response for the death. One said Liam Payne is dead because of you. Another said, now he is dead, are you happy?
I just think it's.
Really troubling that this is a twenty three year old woman who has found the bravery to speak out against physical and emotional abuse that she allegedly received at the hands of someone who is very high profile, and she is now being vilified and blamed for his death. I think it's very clear, since more reports have come out about the situation surrounding Liam's death, that.
This wasn't the only thing on his mind.
It unfortunately is very bad timing and these comments have not aged well.
No, but it doesn't.
Mean that she is responsible for his actions. I mean, Liam has been suffering from chronic drug and alcohol problems for years. She tried to get him help with these issues, and from what she said in the interview, she is just scratching the surface of things that he has allegedly
done to her. And I think in times like this, as a society, we really want someone to blame and hold respondsible for his death, and no one looks inwards at themselves and thinks, well, maybe it was unhelpful to troll him over his appearance at Niles concert, or maybe we shouldn't have been knocking down his door trying to get photos with him, or giving him space and the privacy that he needed.
No one wants to blame themselves. They want to blame someone else.
Everyone loves to shift the blame. What makes no sense to me is that Liam's cause of death has not been proven. It is still under investigation. These fans clearly think that he has taken his own life because of what Maya has said, and in order to punish her, they're trolling her, so eventually she takes her own life.
Like it doesn't make any sense. I would literally hate.
To know what she's going through at the moment, particularly because even though it's not her fault, I'm sure that she would hold guilt around this. And it doesn't help when you have people saying your worst fear, yeah, and it's your fault and also she's trying to deal with what also has allegedly happened to her at the same time as navigating sadness around her alleged abus's death. Yeah, there's also been another TikToker who's been dragged into this controversy.
Her name is also Maya Henry and she is an actress and content creator from Canada. So a number of media publications have mistakenly used her images in articles confusing her for Liam's ex fiance, and this has resulted in her copying a barrage.
Of hate and abuse.
So her TikTok came up on my newsfeed and I just assumed it was her and she was like, it was not on my bingo card to be blamed for the death of Liam Payne, And I was like, oh wow, has Maya Henry actually came out and spoken about this? And then I was so confused because that was her name as well, and she looked a lot like her now.
Sheryl Cole, who was Liam's former partner and the mother to his childbare released a very heart wrenching statement reminding the world that we have lost a human being now. She expressed her disappointment at the media coverage, labeling it abhorrent and describing the reporting as media exploitation. She also described Liam's death as an earth shattering event and said Liam was not only a pop star and a celebrity.
He was a son, a brother, an uncle, a dear friend, and a father to our seven year old son, a son that now has to face the reality of never seeing his father again. It is breaking my heart further that I cannot protect him from that in his future. Please give Liam the dignity he has left in the wake of his death to rest in some peace at last. That is just so sad to listen to the fact that Liam has a seven year old son who was
trying to navigate this situation as well. And then you've got photos of your father's dead body being circulated around Twitter. It is so sad that potentially, one day Bear could see those photos. I really hope that they are completely wipe from the Internet. What also made me very sad was reading the tributes that Liam's former bandmates left for him. So Zayne wrote, even though you were younger than me,
you were always more sensible than me. Your head strong, opinionated and gave no fucks telling people when they were wrong. Even though we butted heads because of this a few times, I always secretly respected you for it. It's important to point out that he included a laughing face emoji in there.
I think to point out.
That their fights were lighthearted because they have been so pumped up in the media. Zaane has also postponed the US leg of his tour as he grieves, which it just shows how impactful this death has been. I found it really hard to read Lewis's statement as well, because he recently has lost his mum and sister, so this is another big loss for him. So he opened up that he had lost a brother in Liam and described
him as the most vital part of One Direction. He also said he was grateful that they'd become even closer since the band split up, and would speak on the phone with Liam for hours, reminiscing about their thousands of amazing memories. He also vowed to be there for Bear and tell him how amazing his dad was. I feel like Harry Styles was probably the most put together and professional media release I fromly had.
Helped from his media team.
So he wrote that he was devastated by Liam's passing and that the years he spent with Liam and One Direction will be the most cherished years.
Of his life. Now.
Niall put out his statement last, and I think it's because he was probably most impacted by it because he only recently saw Liam, and he said he feels so fortunate to have seen him at his concert, and he never would have realized that after saying goodbye and hugging him that night, it would be the last goodbye for ever.
Oh it's just so sad.
I really feel for Nihile in this situation, because there must be a part of him that blames himself that he had a concert there and you know those sliding door moments. Now, I do want to talk about the reaction from the fans after Liam's death because I find it so interesting. So when the news broke, One Direction fans literally returned to the fandom to seek comfort and support. So a lot of inactive fan accounts and group chats that were once frozen in time suddenly began buzzing again.
And I think that's because of the complexity that surrounds Liam's legacy.
So the fandom has been.
A safe space for directioners to share their grief without any judgment. And I think that that's because they feel like directioners are the only ones who truly understand what they're going through and there's not going to be any judgment. Yeah, particularly TikTok is a rough place at the moment if you are a one Direction fan. So I am glad that they do have this safe place to mourn. As we touched on at the start of the episode, we were One Direction fans but not a part of the
fandom itself. But I think we have been in a sense part of a fandom before.
So I think the big one for us was the Dean Guya forum.
Yeah, it's wild to think how popular forums were in.
Was it what one? Was it like twenty I think two thousand and.
Six, Yeah, so because we didn't I don't think Twitter was around then. So it was really forums that you would go on and you would make friends with these people that also liked the celebrity that you were interested in. And there's such a hierarchy when it comes to these fandoms, Like I remember on the Dean Guy forum, people's avatars would really give you an idea of what you thought they were like, Like if they had a really nice avatar with nice pictures of Dean Guy, you kind of
though of them in a different way. And on these forums, I have to say that the majority of people always have a distaste for the girlfriend or whoever the girlfriend is, even if they're the nicest person on the planet, there's
a lot of jealousy surrounding it. Yeah, And in saying that, I do think the friendships that are formed in these sorts of communities are very genuine, because while you get together to talk about maybe album releases or award show performances, there's also personal chats going on and people sharing their own life milestones in the general.
Chat on those types of forums.
So while the relationship with the band was a parasocial one for Directioners, the friendships within that.
Community were very real.
And this community of fans I think was one of the most significant things to come from one Directtiontion's existence and their directions were really the originators of modern stan Twitter. So they use the platform to communicate with the boys and fans as well as get the band trending online. They set the tone for a lot of other big fan groups. I noticed a lot of Directioners were saying that Liam's passing very much reminded them of the day
when Zain announced he was leaving the band. And I think it's because there's this real finalness to it, because there have been rumors for.
Months that One Direction was going to reform and.
We were going to have a reunion, we were going to get new shows, new concerts, and I think that there's a real feeling and knowledge that probably is not going to happen, particularly because Liam sang a lot of the songs. Well, people want a reunion of all five members,
they don't want to of just the four. And I think it was the nature of the way the boys actually went on a hiatus, so it was described as an indefinite hiatus in twenty fifteen, and as you said, Sophie, there were recently murmurs of this reun so a lot of fans were getting excited about it. So one Rolling Stone writer and One Direction fan, Larissa Paul, wrote, the version of One Direction that we have all held on
to hasn't existed for quite some time. It lives forever only in the sense that it lives within all of us, but the reality of their true impermanence has left us with even more ghost to grieve in the wake of
Liam's death, and I think that sums it up really well. Yeah, it's crazy to think that it's been eight years since the band broke up, and it just feels like so many famous bands recently have returned to perform on stage together because at the moment, we're experiencing this real nostalgia and we're seeing these huge performers coming back, and Oasis.
You never expect that they would return.
So I just think that everyone is not only grieving Liam, but they're also grieving the fact that One Direction is never going to come back together and never be complete. Yeah, and a lot of directioners are looking at the music for signs. So at the end of the band's last single History, the boys eerily seeing so don't let me go.
We can live forever.
I have been listening to One Direction NonStop in the car and it's bringing me sadness.
But also a lot of joy.
See, I haven't been able to listen to it, but I've got it in my head, probably from a lot of the tiktoks that haven't playing in the background. It is just so heartbreaking. It does feel like a piece
of your childhood is dying. I mean, we were probably twenty five, at the peak of their popularity, but I do fondly remember their concert and I'm always someone that buys into that hype around celebrities, and for many young fans, it's the first celebrity that they have loved that has died, or even the first person that they know, be it from a parasocial relationship that has passed away. You really
do grieve these relationships. And a lot of people have compared the death to that of John Lennon from the Beatles, and when you love a band or a musician, you really do attach your own life experiences to their music, and a lot of people are probably thinking, well, now that they're gone, it feels like those experiences are over to A lot of people were saying I should be experiencing this when I mean my fifties and sixties, not
when I'm in my twenties. I'm actually feeling more sad than I did when we started, because it's really sad to rehash all of the complexities of this death. At the end of the day, Liam was a real person who has a son, who has a family, I mean seeing his dad going to his hotel. I recently read the message that his sister wrote to him on Instagram. He was a young boy that was plucked from obscurity at seventeen, and it's hard not to consider that if he hadn't been a part of One Direction, would he
have lost his life at such a young age. I mean, everyone always says that they want to grow up famous and rich, but he literally had it all but had nothing at the same time, fame really impacted him. I saw an interview he did and he was talking about how it scared him so much that his son Bear said that he.
Wanted to perform on stage with him and be famous.
Because for Liam that would be his absolute worst nightmare because the fame really damaged him. And what is also so sad is that there is just so much guilt being felt by so many people. I think that his family would feel guilt for getting him into something so young, and all I could think about was his mum. In the movie, she bought a cardboard cutout of Liam and put him in her room because she said she missed
having him at home. So it's not only grief that the family of feeling now that he's gone, but all of those years that they missed out on having their boy at home. It's going to be really interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks when the cause of Liam's death is confirmed, and whether there is more investigations done into the way that the hotel staff
acted during his stay. We also are going to potentially see a public funeral play out, and I've seen so many people saying that it is just so depressing that the last time all of the boys are going to be in the same room together is at Liam's funeral, and it's not the reunion everyone thought we were going to get. That is a really tough note to end things on now. If anyone is ruggling, Lifeline are available.
Their number is thirteen eleven fourteen. We will return to our regular episodes on Thursday, where you can get all of the latest influencer news.
Thank you so much for listening.
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We pay respect to Elder's past in present