AMANDA PLATELL: Why Liam Payne was doomed from the moment he became a child star

Liam Payne had everything he could have ever dreamed of as a teenager. As a member of One Direction, he had a string of No. 1 hits, adoring (mostly female) fans, millions in the bank and a lifestyle that involved traveling the world by private jet and performing to packed stadiums.

But he had made a pact with the devil and it was no surprise that he came off worse for it.

Now, in the wake of his tragic death, it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that he was doomed from the moment he became a child star.

Liam was just 14 when he first auditioned for the come’. two years’.

And when he did, he was ticketed to megastardom by being selected as one of the five participants in the creation of One Direction.

They were then marketed by their managers, with a punishing regime of recording and touring that would have tested the endurance of many more experienced artists.

It was certainly too much for the sensitive boy from Wolverhampton, who went from sharing a modest, loving home with his mother Karen, a nurse, his father Geoff, a mechanic, and his two older sisters Nicola and Ruth, to an immediate international fame was catapulted. .

And after the band split in 2016, he has endured several breakups. He fell victim to depression, anxiety and excessive dependence on alcohol and drugs.

Liam Payne with girlfriend Kate Cassidy, who had been with him in Argentina until just two days before tragedy struck

How did it come to this? How could the boy who was credited with singing the opening lines of One Direction’s first 2011 hit, What Makes You Beautiful, die just thirteen years later?

Maybe the answer lies in the chorus of that song sung by Harry Styles: “You don’t know, oh-oh, you don’t know that you’re beautiful, oh-oh/That’s what makes you beautiful.”

Because at just 16 years old, the sweet, innocent teenager unknowingly entered into a Faustian pact that won him admiration and wealth, but cost him his sanity and ultimately his life. And left Bear, his son by former Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Tweedy, fatherless at the age of seven.

In August, he uploaded an Instagram video in which he said of his son, “Bless him. He’s getting so big now. He’s a big boy and he looks like a mini me. As if we needed me in the world anymore.’

It sounded poignant then, but now irredeemably tragic.

His decline was undoubtedly rooted in the pressure of instant fame. He took an anti-seizure drug as a mood stabilizer to deal with the “erratic highs and lows” inherent in being a member of the most famous boy band in the world.

Alcohol became his crutch. “Doing a show for however many thousands of people, and then being stuck alone in a country with nowhere to leave, what else are you supposed to do… other than turn on the minibar,” he once said.

Like so many tortured performers before him, Liam soon learned that the only way to cope with the decline of the incredible adrenaline rush generated by playing in stadiums full of screaming fans was to self-medicate with class A drugs: self-medicate with class A-drugs – the road to ruin and an early death. for so many stars.

After the band broke up, he revealed in numerous interviews how he became prone to depression and anxiety and that his mental health further suffered from setbacks such as the failure of his initially promising solo career and parting ways with his manager.

So no one heard his cries for help when he said in 2015: ‘It was a point where every day you didn’t know if this would be the end. It was so touch and go, at every show. I slowly lost the plot.’

Payne posted a photo of himself to his Instagram Story in the hours before his death

Of course, we’ve seen these types of slow-motion car crashes before. Amy Winehouse was just 27 when she died of alcohol poisoning. The same age as Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain when he shot himself just days after checking into a drug rehabilitation center.

A friend told the Mail: ‘Liam was struggling, he just wanted to be a good person. He had the world at his feet, he worked so hard, but he couldn’t overcome his pain.’

Perhaps Liam’s hospitalization in Italy last September with a mysterious serious illness should have been a wake-up call, especially after his previous pleas for help with his mental health.

His erratic behavior the afternoon before he fell from the balcony of his Buenos Aires hotel was another warning sign. Witnesses in the hotel lobby say he destroyed his laptop and was so incapacitated by drugs or alcohol that “he had to be carried back to his room” and police were called.

When they returned later that evening, they had to cordon off the hotel courtyard where his broken body lay.

Meanwhile, back in London, Simon Cowell responded to news of Payne’s death by canceling filming of the latest series of Britain’s Got Talent.