Liam Payne’s girlfriend Kate Cassidy has opened up about the singer’s death, saying she is “still working on accepting the fact that he’s not here anymore”.
The singer, 31, died in October last year after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina.
Cassidy was with Payne in Buenos Aires but flew to the US days before the British pop star star died.
In an emotional interview with ITV presenter Lorraine Kelly, she said: “It’s hard for me to refer to him in the past tense, and when I do refer to him in the past tense it almost stings that little bit more because… it just … it’s more official.”
Cassidy, 25, said she has her “harder days” and has sometimes struggled “to get out of bed in the morning”, but added: “I’m surrounded by such a great support system that I cannot thank enough.”
Image: Payne and Cassidy. Pic: Instagram/Kate Cassidy
She praised Kelly and ITV for launching a new mental health initiative, which she is helping to promote, and said: “I genuinely believe Liam, in a way, guided me to this campaign and wanted me to be involved in this, and to help other people.”
Cassidy, an American social media influencer, said that he “was so open about his mental health” and she is supporting the push as “he no longer can help people”.
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She added: “I’m going through this healing journey, sometimes it’s hard for me to get out of bed in the morning and something I don’t want to do.
“But I have this responsibility and this obligation that I am almost in a way… I have no choice. I have to get out of bed [for my dog] Nala and whether it’s a five-minute walk or 20-minute walk first thing in the morning.
“Either way, it just wakes me up and refreshes my mind instead of laying in bed all day just scrolling through social media or old photos, it gets me out of bed and really, really helps my mindset and my mental health.”
Image: Kate Cassidy and model Damian Hurley at Payne’s funeral service in November. Pic: PA
Cassidy, who began dating Payne in 2022, previously said he was “the most humble, charming, normal person you could ever hope to come across, and genuinely one of the best people I’ve ever met in my life”.
Court documents state that former One Direction star Payne fell from the balcony of his room on the third floor of the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires at about 5.10pm on 16 October.
Toxicology tests revealed that before his death, he had traces of alcohol, cocaine, and a prescription antidepressant in his body.
His cause of death was “polytrauma” from multiple injuries and internal and external bleeding, a postmortem found.
Last month, manslaughter charges against Payne’s friend Rogelio “Roger” Nores, hotel operator Gilda Martin, and head of reception Esteban Grassi were dropped following an appeal.
Hotel employee Ezequiel Pereyra and waiter Braian Paiz are still facing prosecution for allegedly supplying Payne with drugs, having been charged in December. Supplying drugs in Argentina carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK
It is “pretty surreal”, Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon admits, finding herself at the top of The New York Times bestsellers list.
When I meet the actress alongside her co-writer, best-selling author Harlan Coben, overnight the pair have learned that their thriller is now at number one.
He jokes: “I was texting her last night and saying you’ll now have to call yourself number one bestselling novelist, forget about Oscar winner!”
Image: Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben told Katie Spencer about their novel Gone Before Goodbye
As one of the most successful authors in the world, Coben has sold over 80 million books to date, while for Witherspoon this is new ground.
Not content with running a hugely successful production company responsible for a string of hits, as well as one of the most successful book clubs in the world, she explains she felt compelled to give writing a try.
“People want you to stay in your lane… as a creative person I think it’s impossible to just choose one kind of life.
“Creativity is infinite and who I was as a creative person when I was 20 is very different from the person I am now at 49.”
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Gone Before Goodbye, a thriller about a talented surgeon who finds herself caught up in a deadly conspiracy, is the result of Witherspoon daring to put her head above the parapet.
Image: Witherspoon says she felt compelled to give writing a try
Coben admits he was “a little wary” at first.
“I don’t co-write novels but when she made the pitch and started talking about it, I was like ‘dang that’s good, we can do something with that’.”
While countless celebrities work with ghostwriters, Coben says: “I said to her from day one ‘it’s only going to be you and me in here… no third person in here, I don’t do that’. So every word you [read] comes from Reese and me.”
Image: Coben has sold over 80 million books to date, while for Witherspoon this is new ground
Witherspoon explains: “He was like ‘if we’re going to do this, it’s going to have to be at a really high level because people going to expect a lot, so our bar was really high.”
“I said to her, in the beginning, novels are like a sausage,” Coben laughs. “You might like the final taste, but you don’t want to see how it was made and Reese got to see the full sausage getting made here.”
When it came to writing, Coben says they “fell into a rhythm right away”, working together in three-hour stints, “back and forth with a yellow legal pad – what about this? What about that?”
Image: Coben says they ‘fell into a rhythm right away’
Witherspoon says it “feels really deeply personal” to have their work now in print.
“Usually, as an actor, I walk into other people’s worlds and it’s already set up… but this was creating the whole world with Harlan and just from beginning to end feels very personal.”
While the story seems an obvious fit for being adapted to the screen, perhaps with a certain blonde actress in the leading role, Coben says that was never their intention.
“The biggest, biggest mistake novelists make when you write a book is to say ‘this would make a really great movie’. A book is a book, a movie is a movie, and we both focused on wanting this to be just a great reading experience.”
Given that their collaboration is already selling in big numbers, will the pair team up again to write a second?
Witherspoon says: “Let’s just see what people think of this one first.”
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Associate professor of neurology Dr Laura Stein told Sky’s US partner NBC News: ” The most well-described risk factors include a predisposition [family history of aneurysm], high blood pressure, cigarette smoking and inflammation.”
She went on to explain that most fatal ruptured aneurysms are in the brain, killing about one in three patients.
“When it’s a blood vessel that’s in the head and it bleeds, there’s a much higher risk of having a very bad problem just because the brain is enclosed in a fixed space,” Dr Stein added.
Low-risk aneurysms are monitored by doctors for growth or abnormalities, and there are a series of potential treatment options for those considered dangerous.
Elsewhere in The Kardashians clip, Kim admitted that her ex-husband Kanye West will be in her life “no matter what” because of the four kids they share together.