Tragic Liam Payne was churned out by the pop machine that breaks its stars… inside the dark secrets of boyband fame
ON the day he joined One Direction an excited Liam Payne texted his dad to say “I’m in a boyband.”
He was just 16 and living the starry-eyed dream shared by millions of kids – fuelled by the popularity of shows like The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent.
But his tragic death, 14 years on, has shone a spotlight on the dark side of superstardom – particularly at a young age.
Liam was an ordinary lad from Wolverhampton who became an overnight star after joining One Direction on The X Factor in 2010 and, like many on the hit talent show, he felt his dreams had come true.
But the string of number one hits, armies of screaming fans and soaring bank balances came hand in hand with the mental health problems and addiction battles that have plagued so many boyband idols.
Responding to the news that Liam had died on Wednesday, after plunging from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Boyzone’s Mikey Graham hit out at the lack of care the pop industry shows for kids who become superstars.
He wrote: “Rip Liam Payne. Such tragic news. I think it would be a wise move for record companies to have psychologists on their books from now on in his memory as a duty of care for the vulnerability of their young talent.
“Fame can be very damaging especially in today’s world. Lots of money. Nobody to help. Lots of yes people. Nobody honest.”
Friend and fellow X Factor star Rebecca Ferguson lashed out at the talent show in a tribute to Liam: “It’s always a hotel room! We both met at Euston station and shared the taxi together to X factor, young, innocent and unaffected by fame.
“I can’t help but think of that boy who was hopeful and looking forward to his bright future ahead. If he hadn’t jumped on that train and jumped in that taxi I believe he would be alive today.
“I’ve spoken for years about the exploitation and profiteering of young stars and the effects – many of us are still living with the aftermath and the PTSD [post traumatic stress disorder].
“Many of us are devastated and reflective today as it has finally taken its first victim. Rest in Peace Liam, I hope you find peace on the other side and love to your mum and family x.”
It comes as:
- Liam’s cause of death was released by medics
- A heartbreaking 911 call from worried hotel staff was revealed
- Cops are reportedly set to hunt for a drug dealer
- The star’s ex says he “predicted his early death”
- Liam’s girlfriend revealed why she left Argentina
- Simon Cowell cancelled BGT auditions after Liam’s death
PR guru Mark Borkowski agrees that reality shows and record companies that thrust young vulnerable people into the limelight need to do more to protect them.
He tells The Sun: “What the industry is not good at is shielding people from the toxicity of fame. People at the centre of it are forgotten.
“Fame is not the baubles and the glitter. Fame is a very dark force. I don’t think enough is being talked about on that level.”
Psychologist Jo Hemmings says: “Your life literally changes overnight. You’re just an ordinary kid who’s applied for a show – it’s very exciting, lots of adrenaline, enthusiasm.
“It’s every young boy’s dream. But then there’s a sense that your life isn’t really your own.
“You’re away from your family a great deal of the time, you’re away from your friends. You can’t have that ordinary life.
“Also, there was no building up a career, doing the pub circuit. I don’t think you can underestimate the impact of going from zero to hero overnight.”
‘Lonely’ addiction battle
Liam’s struggles with drugs, drink and mental health problems were well-documented.
Talking to Ant Middleton in a 2019 documentary, Liam said: “For some certain circumstances I’m quite lucky to still be here.
“There are times when that level of loneliness and people getting into you every day, it’s like, ‘When will this end?’ That’s almost nearly killed me a couple of times.”
Asked if he has ever felt like acting on those desperate thoughts, he added: “Yeah, when I’ve been in a bad place. It’s one hundred per cent, you know. There’s no point denying it — it’s definitely been on the menu a couple of times in my life.”
In 2021, he revealed he had spiralled into drug and drink addiction and had been given a wake-up call after seeing pictures of himself on a boat.
“I was all bloated out… I call it my pills-and-booze face. My face was just like 10 times more than it is now. I just didn’t like myself very much and then I made a change.”
He also revealed loneliness fuelled his booze problem after band members were locked in hotel rooms for their own safety, as screaming crowds gathered outside.
“The best way to secure us, because of how big it got, was to lock us in a room,” he said. “And, of course, what is in the room? A minibar.
“At a certain point, I just thought, ‘Well, I’m going to have a party for one,’ and that just seemed to carry on throughout many years of my life.”
Dark ‘case study’
Like Liam, Robbie Williams was just 16 when he became an overnight star in Take That and he later revealed the shocking toll fame took on all the members – telling The Times they are a ‘case study’ on the dark side of the industry.
He said: “All the boys have mentioned this publicly, so I’m not busting anyone’s privacy — you’ve got Gaz [Gary Barlow] who became bulimic and agoraphobic and didn’t leave his house, who forgot how to write songs and slept under his piano.
I don’t think you can underestimate the impact of going from zero to hero overnight
Psychologist Jo Hemmings
“You’ve got Howard [Donald], who contemplated suicide. You’ve got Mark [Owen], who ended up in rehab.
“You’ve got Jason [Orange], who can’t hack it and has just, like, disappeared. And then you’ve got me.
“So that’s your case study: there’s something that solidifies and calcifies in those five years — which is the traditional lifespan of a boy band — that causes mental illness. It’s five out of five.”
Scott from 5ive: 'I've lived dark side of fame'
By Hayley Minn
Scott Robinson, 44, was 17 when he joined boyband 5ive, who sold 20 million records worldwide.
Liam’s death has hit me very hard, as I went from being not very famous to famous in the blink of an eye, and know firsthand how lonely you can feel being in a boy band.
Within 10 days of auditioning for 5ive and getting into the band, I’d left my family home, moved into a house in Surrey and gave one person – my now-wife Kerry – my phone number. I couldn’t even tell her where I was moving to.
That same year, in 1997, our first single Slam Dunk (Da Funk) came out and was in the top 10.
Life changed for us instantly.
Liam previously said the only safe place for him was to be locked in his room by a security guard, where there’s a mini-bar.
I’ve been there. I’ve lived that. I’ve been all over the world, where I’ve got two security guards outside my room with guns, and I’m locked in and I can’t go anywhere.
I really, deeply struggled in the band, and I hated being there. I missed home, I missed Kerry, I missed my family.
I spent many, many dark days in hotel rooms, crying, drinking the minibar dry, on the phone to Kerry, saying, ‘I want to be at home. I can’t do this,’ but I was so lucky to have her telling me not to worry.
If it wasn’t for her I would not be in a good place, because I like a drink.
I’ve never taken a drug in my life, but my drug is alcohol.
I really had to bat away the drugs. You could get them as easily as you could get a pint of milk at the height of 5ive’s fame – and no one would ask you for money.
I never paid for a thing in my life, but whatever I asked for I got. If I needed a beer, someone got me a beer.
I couldn’t even go to the shops to buy it. I wasn’t allowed.
There was a time when we were in Japan, and I wanted to go out at my hotel to buy myself a dictaphone and mini disk player.
I begged my security for the chance to actually go out and buy it, and they eventually agreed, but it required me to be surrounded by five big men as I walked through the streets of Tokyo.
All the fans were trying to get at me, pulling at my clothes, and I went into this shop, and all of a sudden, the windows were smashed, because the fans were trying to get in. The shopkeeper said, ‘Just take it, take whatever you want’.
So I was sitting in my hotel room, with my dictaphone and mini disk player, gutted because I hadn’t bought it. I’d stolen it, essentially, and I was gutted because I thought, ‘This is my life now.’
Some people may think what an amazing life, but it’s a very lonely one.
And that’s what I think when I look at Liam; Every time he walked out of that hotel, there were people there.
I was 21 when I left 5ive, as I just couldn’t do it anymore.
I got married to Kerry the very next day, and started a new life, a really secure one. We already had Brennan, who was three months old at the time, and we’ve gone on to have three more beautiful kids.
I’ve got a really stable life now, but I still have mental health struggles, and have counselling because of stuff with the band, even now, 23 years later.
It’s no wonder Liam struggled, as do many people in the industry that haven’t got a big enough support network. I genuinely believe that record labels and managers should look after you just a little bit better. I think there should be something afterwards, not at your expense, at theirs, where you can go, this is where you go when you’re feeling low, when you’re feeling this, when you’re feeling that, It’s there for you.
It just doesn’t seem like record labels have learned from their mistakes.
They’re certainly looking after your money, but they’re not looking after you.
Robbie, who also battled alcoholism and drug addiction, said: “Dyspraxia, dyslexia, ADHD, neurodiversity, body dysmorphia, hypervigilance… There’s a new one that I acquired recently: HSP. Highly sensitive person. Post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]. And, obviously I have an addictive personality… I am collecting them all, like Scout badges.”
He warned that mental health problems were inevitable in superstar boybands, adding: “If they don’t have them at the beginning, they do by the end. No one gets a free pass in the extreme fame game. No one comes out the other side well adjusted and happy and mentally well. Name me one.”
Former X Factor contestant Matt Terry has previously hit out at the reality show which launched so many famous acts, including 1D, saying there was “no duty of care from anyone” towards its stars.
And Katie Waissel, who appeared alongside Liam in 2010 and has since slammed Simon Cowell and his label Syco for not taking her mental health seriously, hit out over Wednesday’s tragic news, saying: “My heart is completely torn to shreds… If Simon Cowell dare put a statement out on the heart wrenching, tragic loss of my dear and darling friend Liam, he would be a fool. We all know the truth… and I’ll be sure it all comes out.”
Fame is not the baubles and the glitter. Fame is a very dark force. I don’t think enough is being talked about on that level
PR guru Mark Borkowski
Jo Hemmings says growing up in the limelight can have a negative impact on teen stars and the fact that 1D was a group of strangers, thrown together, may have made life harder.
“They were just ordinary boys who were put together in a band. But that stops them from having normal teenage years – all the mistakes we make, the broken hearts and the relationships with our mates.
“As a manufactured band, the closeness they may have had or the support for each other may not have been as strong as it would have been if they’d been friends.
“There would have been a lot of rows, fractured relationships, all of which adds to a horrible feeling of homesickness.
“When you’re young, you’re raw and it’s so important to have that downtime where they can just hang out and chill. It can become really overwhelming very quickly.
“He would never know what it’s like to be wanted for him as an individual. You never quite know if somebody wants to date him because of who he was, what he’d done in life, the money he had, his success. He’d never had that opportunity to find that out.
“You become a money making machine and you can feel very used, manipulated, and distressed. You feel there’s no freedom, no independence – and that can have a really traumatic effect on them.
“They don’t realise until later down the line that has affected them develop mentally and emotionally.
“For some, drugs are a quick fix – it’s much easier and quicker to obliterate the bad times than to actually deal with it properly.”
'1D boys had no days off thanks to fame'
By Thea Jacobs
A music industry source who worked with One Direction said: “Back in the days of One Direction the boys were just non-stop. Their schedules didn’t really allow them time to have any personal life away from the band.
“But they were always close with each other and used to have a communal dressing room so they could hang out before the shows together. They used to share beers in the dressing room and on their final show as a band they had a massive cake they shared with the entire crew.
“Days off for the crew weren’t days off for the boys. They were cooped up in hotels or had to be escorted in cloak and dagger days out or for dates.
“Even in the early days, every part of their life was scrutinised by the team managing them.
“It didn’t surprise me at all when they all started acting out a bit once they went solo.
“Liam was very aware, even back then, about saying the right things and before any interviews would be on the phone with an advisor to make sure he got it right.
“Being famous from 16 is incredibly hard, and it’s not something you see that often. For most people, overnight fame takes at least five years of work and in that time you’re eased into it. You learn stuff on the way. They learn to take all the smoke being blown up their ass with a pinch of salt, but if it’s literally overnight, you don’t get that.
“But for Liam and 1D, they didn’t get that. Everything was fast tracked and it has this horrible effect on people. It’s like we saw with Michael Jackson, things just spiral out of control.
“Those insane schedules don’t work well with people who are teenagers and still developing. It’s exhausting.
“Sadly, it’s a tale as old as time and much older than the existence of boybands.
“We see it time and time again when young stars try to grab back normal life and make the most of being a rock star – like how John Lennon turned to heroin to try and get some control.
“Each year around 50 artists and bands who are signed drop out before they even release their first single because they can’t cope with the pressures of the lifestyle.”
‘Bright and shiny’ veneer
Mark Borkowski says the entertainment industry is keen to project to “bright and shiny” side of fame that stars are caught out and “struggle with the fact they can’t have a normal life”
He said: “Going back years into the Babylon of Hollywood, you see how many people had their sexuality covered up, people turning to drink and drug addictions. It’s something that has gone on for decades.
“Corporate entertainment needs to be bright and shiny. You see this in particular with reality shows and talent shows like X Factor.
If they don’t have [mental health issues] at the beginning, they do by the end. No one gets a free pass in the extreme fame game
Robbie Williams
“Liam Payne was part of one of the most famous boy bands of all time and he had to leave his entire life behind.
“It doesn’t matter how much money or success you’ve got, when you’ve been plucked at an early age and sent to fame, it inevitably doesn’t go well.
“Time and time again we see people struggling to deal with the fact they can’t go and buy a pint of milk or have a meal with friends without someone wanting to talk to you or take a photograph.
“People don’t look at the mental health issues. They think people are famous and they’re living in luxury, with private jets and five star hotels. You’re always projecting the positive side.
“You have publicists and managers who tell you everything you want to hear until you’re no longer that person that can deliver them that 20 per cent. People kill what they eat.
“It’s important for everyone to have a friend who will criticise when necessary but you’re not guaranteed that when you become famous.
“The most valuable thing in life is trust and you can’t buy it. You need foul weather friends and trust and if you don’t have that support, it’s a very lonely and difficult place to navigate.
“Fame is a monster and you’ve got to know how to manage that. You have to value your mental health. Don’t judge your success by the money in your bank account. Health is wealth.”