Liam Payne’s girlfriend, Kate Cassidy, has opened up about her “chilling” final conversation with the One Direction star before his shocking death last year.
Cassidy, 26, detailed her last talk with her late boyfriend during an emotional appearance on Jay Shetty’s “On Purpose” podcast posted on Wednesday, April 16.
The podcast episode came six months after Payne tragically passed away after falling from a third-floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on October 16, 2024. He was 31.
Cassidy was in Argentina with Payne earlier in the trip, but she left just two days before his sudden death to return to their home in Florida. The pair had been together for nearly two years, per Us Weekly.
“When I think about the last day and the last words that we said to each other, it brings me this mixture of pain and peace,” Cassidy said. “It brings me pain because I still can’t fully process that day, the day I left Argentina, was the last day I was able to touch Liam, hug Liam, speak to him, and be in the same room as him.”
“But it brings me peace because it was such a beautiful last moment we had together,” she continued. “On our last day, we woke up, we had an amazing breakfast, we were in the countryside, we went horseback riding. I had a later evening flight.”
The actress then detailed Payne’s “chilling” last words to her for the first time since his heartbreaking passing.
“On the last day in Argentina, my car was in the driveway, and we went back into the guest house, grabbed my suitcase, and sat on the couch,” Cassidy recalled. “I just kept going on and on and on about how much I love him and how much he means to me, and how much I’m going to miss him, and that I can’t wait for him to already be back in Florida because we were starting this new chapter of our life.”
“I remember sitting there with him,” she continued, “and I was going on and on and saying to Liam how much I love him, and he laughed and he interrupted me and he just said, ‘Kate, you’re going to miss your flight. Your car’s in the driveway. You’re acting like this is the last time you’re ever going to see me again.’”
Although Cassidy described her last conversation with Payne as “chilling,” she also admitted that she was “blessed” to have shared such a “heartfelt” and “beautiful” final goodbye with the One Direction alum.
“Just to even look back in time and just know that really was the last time I was able to see him again, is just so chilling,” she said. “But in a way, I think that the way that we said goodbye to each other, I’m so blessed. And this is where I get that peace from it, that it was that heartfelt, beautiful – I didn’t know of it – but obviously our last goodbye.”
“I wouldn’t have wanted it to be any differently,” Cassidy added, fighting back tears. “I’m so glad that we had that last beautiful moment together and shared that.”
Before the podcast appearance, the actress and influencer opened up about the heartbreaking moment she learned Payne was dead. She also admitted that “sometimes it’s hard for me to get out of bed in the morning.”
Cassidy isn’t the only one reflecting on Payne on the six-month anniversary of his tragic passing.
Ruth Gibbins, the late singer’s older sister, took to Instagram on Wednesday to remember her little brother half a year after his death.
“My head is still screaming for you,” she wrote in a touching Instagram post. “Each morning on waking, I feel like I am plunged underwater, gasping for air that never comes to relieve me. Living without you is impossible, so for now, I exist. I’m learning to laugh or smile in the right places, but mate, it’s exhausting when all I want to do is speak to you.”
“In the few moments I allow myself to feel love and not just loss,” Payne’s sister, 34, continued. “I can really smile at the memories of us, like last year when we were doubled over laughing at us trying to make something we’d seen on youtube, but memories are always tinged with sadness at how unfair it is we cant make new ones.”
“I see you, though,” Gibbins added. “You’re always coming through in different ways to put me back on the right path. I miss you loudly, quietly, and in all the moments in between.”
She concluded, “Love you so much more than these words or my tears are capable of expressing, but I know you know this. For now, I’ll meet you in my dreams.”
A toxicology report obtained by TMZ after Payne’s death revealed that the One Direction alum died from injuries sustained in his fall from the hotel balcony.
The report also found that alcohol and “pink cocaine” were in his system at the time of his deadly fall.
Besides Cassidy, his two sisters, and parents, Payne also left behind a son, Bear, 8, whom he shared with his ex-girlfriend, Cheryl Cole.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
