As One Direction star Liam Payne, who will be laid to rest today, battled with addiction towards the end of his life he was supported by his former bandmate Harry Styles

They didn’t speak for a long time after One Direction broke up but Harry Styles was there for Liam Payne in his later years.

The former bandmates experienced a meteoric rise to fame together as teenagers on The X Factor, after which their boyband became a global phenomenon. But the unimaginable stardom impacted all five members of the band and they drifted apart.

Liam, who was just 31 when he fell to his death from the third-floor balcony of his Buenos Aires hotel room last month, told The Face magazine in 2019 that he considered himself “like the antichrist version of what Harry is”.

“I was actually genuinely looking at some pictures of him the other day and I just thought: ‘I don’t know what more I’d say to him other than: ‘Hello’ and: ‘How are you?’’,” he confessed.

But it turns out they wouldn’t struggle for conversation when they got back in touch later down the line. As Harry arrives at Liam’s funeral to pay his final respects, we look back on a special moment between the bandmates before tragedy struck.

The X Factor group were teenagers when they became global superstars ( Image: Getty Images)
In 2021, Liam revealed that Harry had got back in touch as he recalled a “lovely” phone call they shared together. “Yeah, I did speak to Harry, and it was really lovely,” he told the Huffington Post. “He called me because he has a sixth sense for if I’m struggling or if one of us is in trouble I feel like. I spoke to him and it was a really lovely catch up actually. And I’ve got a lot of love for the man. He’s great, he’s really, really great.”

Heartbreakingly, Liam went onto share his hopes that one day, all five stars would reunite once again. “I’d love for us to get in a room at some point,” he said. “I think it would be the best thing.”

One Direction formed back in 2010, made up of Liam, Harry, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson. The band were an overnight sensation and went onto sell more than 70 million records worldwide, winning seven Brit Awards amongst a whopping 200 global gongs.

The band went on an indefinite hiatus in 2016, a year after Zayn left citing stress ( Image: Getty Images)
But the huge fame and wealth came at a price for some members of the band including Zayn, who quit the band in 2015 due to stress. And while Harry, 30, became a hugely successful solo star, Liam enjoyed several hits but was allegedly dropped by his record label in the days before his death.

“It’s hard in this position sometimes, you’re watching people’s stories from afar that you used to know so well,” said Liam of his life after the band went on an indefinite hiatus in 2016. “That can be difficult when you feel like a piece of you is missing with them at that point I guess. And I think we’ve all felt this at different times, me and the boys. It’s almost like missing a very dear friend a lot of the time, but everyone’s so busy and you’ve got to be understanding of all that.”