Just over a month after Liam Payne—the singer and songwriter who drew international fame as a member of British boy band One Direction—tragically died in Buenos Aires the age of 31, Payne’s friends and familiy gathered at a 12th-century church in Amersham, not far outside London, for a memorial service on Wednesday.
Payne’s former bandmates Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, and Niall Horan were among those who paid their respects, reuniting en masse for the first time since One Direction’s On the Road Again tour in 2015. (The group formally disbanded in 2016.)
“We’re completely devastated by the news of Liam’s passing,” Styles, Malik, Tomlinson, and Horan said in a joint statement posted to Instagram shortly after the news broke of Payne’s death. “The memories we shared with him will be treasured forever. For now, our thoughts are with his family, his friends and the fans who loved him alongside us. We will miss him terribly. We love you Liam.”
In his own statement released to Instagram, Styles added that “[Payne]’s greatest joy was making other people happy, and it was an honour to be alongside him as he did it.”
In addition to Styles, Malik, Tomlinson, and Horan, mourners at Wednesday’s memorial service included Simon Cowell and his fiancée Lauren Silverman, James Corden, and Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Tweedy, who dated Payne from 2016 to 2018 and is the mother of his seven-year-old son, Bear Grey. Payne’s parents, Geoff and Karen, were also in attendance, as was his girlfriend at the time of his death, actress Katie Cassidy, escorted by Elizabeth Hurley’s son Damian Hurley.
