Cheryl Tweedy and members of One Direction were among the friends and family who gathered to honor Liam Payne at his funeral.
Singers Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, and Louis Tomlinson joined other attendees at the private service held at St Mary’s Church in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, to pay tribute to Payne.
He passed away at the age of 31 on 16 October after falling from the third-floor balcony of a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Liam Payne’s former partner, Cheryl Tweedy, was present among the mourners on Wednesday.
Girls Aloud star Tweedy, who was in a relationship with Payne from 2016 to 2018 and shares their seven-year-old son Bear, also attended the ceremony.
Simon Cowell was there with his fiancée Lauren Silverman.
Styles made his entrance alongside TV personality James Corden, while Horan attended with his girlfriend Amelia Woolley. Malik arrived shortly after Tomlinson.
Other attendees included Payne’s girlfriend, US influencer Kate Cassidy, and fellow Girls Aloud singers Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh, who came to support their bandmate Tweedy.
Harry Styles arrived at the service with James Corden.
Before the funeral began, numerous locals and fans gathered outside to pay tribute to Payne, who died on 16 October.
Fans across the globe held vigils in his memory following his passing, while a memorial was established in his hometown of Wolverhampton.
Niall Horan attended the service alongside his girlfriend Amelia Woolley.
His cause of death was reported as multiple traumas and “internal and external haemorrhage,” according to a post-mortem examination report.
A probe into his death has been initiated by prosecutors, and three individuals have been charged in relation to the incident.
Payne gained fame with Styles, Tomlinson, Malik, and Horan when Simon Cowell assembled them to create One Direction on the ITV talent show The X Factor in 2010.
Louis Tomlinson was also present for his former bandmate’s funeral.
He initially auditioned in 2008 at the age of 14, performing Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me to the Moon, leading judge Cowell to advise him to return to the competition two years later.
In 2010, he wowed the judges with his rendition of Michael Bublé’s Cry Me a River before being grouped with four other solo contenders during the boot camp stage – the group that eventually became One Direction.
Singer Zayn Malik was also among those who came to pay their respects.
Payne subsequently embarked on a successful solo career, releasing his debut album LP1 in December 2019, which featured songs like Polaroid and Strip That Down featuring Quavo.
One of his most famous tracks, For You, was a collaboration with singer Rita Ora for the film Fifty Shades Freed.
Source: Press Association
