Little Mix singer Perrie Edwards has said she could not believe former One Direction singer Liam Payne’s “heartbreaking” death “was real” after finding out the news.
Payne died at the age of 31 after falling from the third-floor balcony of the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, earlier this month and was found at the scene by police officers and emergency services.
Speaking about Payne’s death on TV presenter Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast, Edwards, 31, said her group had a “relationship” with the singer’s boyband, after winning series eight of The X Factor in 2011, a year after One Direction were formed on the show and finished third.
She said Payne’s death had felt “weird” and “absolutely devastating”.
Edwards told Cotton: “I think it just feels weird, it’s just so sad.
“It’s so heartbreaking, and my heart honestly hurts for his family, his friends, Cheryl (Tweedy, the mother of Payne’s son Bear, seven), his little boy.
“It’s just absolutely devastating, and I can’t even imagine how they must be feeling right now.
“I didn’t think it was real when I read it, and it’s a very weird space, and I think it’s in the air, everyone can feel it, it’s really sad.
“Us girls were messaging, and I think Leigh-Anne (Pinnock, fellow Little Mix member) was like, ‘it’s very close to home’, our careers were very aligned.
“We had a relationship with them (One Direction), and it’s honestly so sad, like it made my body feel weird when I saw the headlines, I was like that can’t be real.
“It shakes you up, it’s just blooming awful, and all of our hearts go out to to his family. It’s an unthinkable thing to have to go through.”
Cotton, 43, then asked Edwards what she felt the “cost of fame” had been for her, and the South Shields-born singer went on to explain that fame had been the “dark side” of her success.
She added: “Success is completely different to fame, and I think success is lovely, it’s joyful, it’s like you’re doing what you love and you’re benefiting from it, and you get all these lovely things, and it feels great.
“But then the fame is like the awful side of it, it’s like the dark side of it that I think people don’t really see.
“I was like, I want to be a famous pop star, I want to sign autographs, and everybody to know who I am, and I want to be a household name.
“But you don’t think of the things that come with that, and it’s hard, and it’s really intense, but I think that’s why I try and surround myself with as many people as I can, that just make me feel good when I’m feeling crap.
“My therapist bless her, I bring her with me to work sometimes, because I literally can’t cope with the panic attacks and stuff.”
Edwards rose to fame as a member of Little Mix, alongside Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirlwall and Jesy Nelson, who were formed on the ITV singing show after initially auditioning as solo acts and eventually became the first girl group to win the show.
The band is currently on hiatus, and has had five UK number one singles and seven UK top 10 albums.
The group is made up of Pinnock, Edwards and Thirlwall, after Nelson left in 2020 citing mental health struggles.
Edwards released her first solo singles Forget About Us, Tears and You Go Your Way this year, and is planning to release her debut solo album.
