Kate Cassidy breaks silence on the chilling call that revealed Liam Payne had fallen to his death.

The 26-year-old influencer had been sitting quietly on the couch in the Florida home she once shared with Liam Payne when her phone rang. It was a friend of the singer’s. The question on the other end would leave her spinning: “Is Liam okay? I heard he fell from a balcony.”

Cassidy instantly dismissed it as a wild rumour. The caller hadn’t said anything about it being fatal, so she assumed the worst might be a broken rib. Still, panic began to rise.

She started calling around, trying to reach anyone who could confirm or deny what she’d just heard. No one answered. That silence made everything worse. “I started to freak out,” she admitted on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast.

She called the friend back. This time, the reply hit like a punch: “The only update I’ve heard is that Liam’s… dead.”

Cassidy froze. She couldn’t believe it. Not Liam. Not her boyfriend. “There was just no way,” she said. But in the back of her mind, a quiet voice questioned: Why would someone make this up?

As the realisation crept in, her body reacted before her mind caught up. She began sweating, pacing, fidgeting. Then the phone exploded with messages and calls—friends, family, people she hadn’t spoken to in years. Everyone had heard.

And then, the confirmation came. The same friend called back: “Liam’s not here anymore.”

Still, Cassidy clung to disbelief. “No, no, no. Are you sure?” she kept asking, unable to accept the truth. “He probably just… broke something. A rib. Anything.” But deep down, she knew.

Her housekeeper, who had left earlier in the day, suddenly returned. She’d seen the news and raced back. Using the garage code to get in, she ran inside, dropped to her knees, and hugged Cassidy on the floor.

“She was so comforting,” Cassidy said. “She brought me water, tissues… it was just me and her.”

Cassidy admitted she had never lost anyone close before. Never even attended a funeral. Now, she had to bury the man she thought she’d spend her life with.

The pain hit hard when she tried on her funeral dress. Looking in the mirror, she broke down. “I was supposed to be trying on my wedding dress,” she said, sobbing. “Not a black one. A white one. Liam was supposed to be here with me.”

The couple had dated for two years before Payne’s shocking death in October 2024. He had fallen from a balcony at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires.

What began as disbelief spiralled into heartbreak. And now, months later, Cassidy continues to piece together her grief, one memory at a time.