Kate Cassidy Recalls Moment She Found Out Boyfriend Liam Payne Passed Away & How She Found Peace In Their Last Moments Together
Kate Cassidy is opening up about her final moments with late boyfriend Liam Payne in a new interview.
The 25-year-old sat down for an interview with Jay Shetty on his podcast On Purpose, sharing their love story, including their early months of dating, his addiction and mental health, building a future together, her final conversation with the singer, how she found out he died days after she left Argentina, and what’s been helping her day to day.
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“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 and it brings me pain because I can’t fully still process that,” she opened up about their final day together. “That day was the day I left Argentina, was the last day I was able to touch Liam, to hug Liam, to speak to him, to be in the same room as him. But it brings me peace because it was such a beautiful last moment we had together on our last day.”
She shared how they had an amazing breakfast, went horseback riding, and she had a later evening flight. Kate noted how they were very clingy with each other, and “if I even went away for one night to go spend the night at my girlfriend’s house, or even go to dinner with my girlfriends, the way me and Liam would say goodbye to each other, wasn’t just like, oh, I’ll see you later. Majority of the time it was this heartfelt long goodbye for at least five minutes of just hugging. I’m gonna miss you. I love you.”
“And on the last day in Argentina, my car was in the driveway and we went back into the guest house, grabbed my suitcase, and we were sitting on the couch and. 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 gonna 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.”
She noted how they just bought a new house, got a dog, and were starting a new life in America after living in England for two years.
“I remember sitting there with him and I was going on and on and on, and saying to Liam how much I love him, and he laughed, and he interrupted me, and he just said, ‘Kate, like, you’re gonna miss your flight. Your car’s in the driveway. You’re acting like this is the last time you’re ever gonna see me again.’”
“I just laughed back. I was just like, ‘I know I’m being silly. I need to get in the car. I can’t miss my flight.’ Just to even look back at in time and just know that really was the last time I was able to see him again, is just so chilling,” she continued. “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 if it was just, if I just said, ‘All right, I’ll see you in a couple days. Like, love you.’ I’m so glad that we had that last beautiful moment together and shared that.”
Kate shared that when she found out he was gone, she was back home in Florida three days after returning from Argentina and she was on the couch in their house alone with their dog Nala, when a friend of his called her asking if Liam was okay.
“He called me and said, ‘Is Liam okay? I heard he fell from a balcony,’ and I said, ‘what? That must be a rumor. I was like, that’s not true at all,’” she remembered. “Like there’s no way this, this isn’t true. And when his friend first called me too, he didn’t mention anything about death. So, the first thing that went to my mind was either it was a rumor, just something for clickbait or he fell off a balcony and he broke a rib. Like he’s okay. So, I’m making all these phone calls and nobody’s answering the calls.”
She started freaking out and eventually called the friend back, but she hadn’t thought the worst yet, and asked if he had any updates, which he said was that he heard Liam was dead.
“In that moment, I still didn’t believe it to be true. There was just no way. But there was just that one little part of me in the back of my head that was like, why would somebody make this up?” Kate said. “You know? I’m just starting to panic at this point. At, this point I’m thinking of, okay, this, this must be true. And I’m pacing around the house. I couldn’t even sit still. Like I was genuinely, there was like sweat dripping down me and I’ve never experienced that before. And I was just couldn’t stop fidgeting with my hands.”
She recalled her phone was really blowing up, getting calls and messages from friends and family, as well as people she hadn’t talked to in years, but she couldn’t look at them or answer. Then, she got the call back from the friend confirming Liam was gone.
“I still, I still didn’t really believe it. I kept saying, no, no, no. Are, are you sure? He’s, he’s probably just, he broke, he broke a bone. He broke a rib. He broke something. Like, he’s not dead. He’s not dead. There’s no way he’s dead,” she shared. “There’s no way. And his friend said, he’s dead. He was like, I can’t really talk, I can’t talk. I just need to let you know the news. I’ll call you back later. And at this point I just lost it. I just, even talking about it, it brings all these emotions back where it’s just still doesn’t even feel true.”
“Sometimes I can talk about it without crying, and then other times I can’t really even speak because it’s just so, the way that I found out, it’s just, you know, it was just something that I never would’ve thought would’ve happened. And I’m sitting in my house, I’m all alone with my dog.”
After that call, she noticed someone pull into the driveway, and it was their housekeeper, who they had a good relationship with.
The housekeeper had just left the house earlier in the day, but said she learned of the news right after getting home and drove right back.
“She put in the garage code, ran in the house and just literally fell on the ground and just hugged me and just said, I am so sorry,” Kate said. “And she was so, it was just me and her and she was so comforting and brought me water, brought me tissues.”
The next day, her mom and three of her childhood best friends all got on flights and flew down to Florida to be with her.
She also said her first thought was to get on a flight to Argentina, but she had no friends there, didn’t know anyone, so she realized there was no point in going there.
“Just to be in a home where I feel comfortable being and being surrounded by such a great support system is just gonna be so much better for my mental health. I knew, of course if I had to be there, I would’ve been there, but there was almost no point in me going there,” Kate said. “I think obviously being in Florida for those couple of days after finding out the news and then being in England was definitely where I needed to be was being in England.”