The former members of One Direction reunited Wednesday for the funeral of bandmate Liam Payne.
Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson joined family and friends on the service for 31-year-old Payne, who died after falling from a lodge balcony in Buenos Aires final month.
A horse-drawn carriage carried the coffin to St. Mary’s Church in Amersham, 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of London. Undertakers carried the darkish blue casket with silver handles, topped with white roses, into the 800-year-old church for the non-public service.
The funeral location was not made public upfront to stop a big crowd from gathering, although dozens of native folks and followers nonetheless gathered close by.
“Growing up, I used to be an enormous fan of One Direction, so I nearly felt like a bit of piece of the kid in me was gone,” mentioned 20-year-old Tara Lloyd, who works on the close by Amersham Hospital.
The crowd fell silent when Payne’s dad and mom, Geoff and Karen, emerged from a automobile to face beside the carriage, which was topped with floral tributes studying “Son” and “Daddy.” Payne had a 7-year-old son, Bear, with the singer Cheryl Tweedy.
Among the mourners was Payne’s girlfriend Kate Cassidy, actor and presenter James Corden, former soccer participant Robbie Keane and music mogul Simon Cowell who put One Direction collectively.
After the service, Cowell embraced Payne’s dad and mom outdoors the church, earlier than the late singer’s coffin was pushed away in a black hearse.
One Direction shaped in 2010 after the 5 youngsters auditioned for “The X-Factor” as solo acts and have been introduced collectively by Cowell, a decide on the present. With their loyal fan base of “Directioners” they grew to become some of the profitable boy bands of all time.
After the group cut up in 2016, Payne launched into a solo profession which did not match the success of One Direction. He was additionally open about struggling together with his psychological well being and alcohol amid the pressures of fame.
Prosecutors in Argentina mentioned that Payne had traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his system when he fell to his dying from the third-floor balcony of his room on the Casa Sur Hotel within the Argentine capital on Oct. 16. They have charged three folks over his dying, with “abandonment of a person followed by death” and “supplying and facilitating the use of narcotics.”
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