Simon Cowell Recalls the Exact Moment He Found Out About Liam Payne's 'Awful' Death and Reveals What He Did Next Desiree AnelloNovember 30, 2025 at 1:44 AM 0 Steve Granitz/FilmMagic;Jeff Spicer/Getty Simon Cowell; Liam Payne Simon Cowell recalled the moment he learned of Liam Payne's death while filming his docuseries, Simon Cowell: The Next Act "It's very difficult to put into words how you feel.
- - Simon Cowell Recalls the Exact Moment He Found Out About Liam Payne's 'Awful' Death and Reveals What He Did Next
Desiree AnelloNovember 30, 2025 at 1:44 AM
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Steve Granitz/FilmMagic;Jeff Spicer/Getty
Simon Cowell; Liam Payne -
Simon Cowell recalled the moment he learned of Liam Payne's death while filming his docuseries, Simon Cowell: The Next Act
"It's very difficult to put into words how you feel. It's just shock," the former X Factor judge said of Payne, who died at 31
Cowell met Payne when he was a 14-year-old auditioning for the music competition show and later helped to form One Direction alongside fellow judge Nicole Scherzinger
Simon Cowell is reflecting on Liam Payne's tragic death.
Over a year after the One Direction alum died at 31 from falling off a hotel balcony in Argentina, the former X Factor judge, 66, detailed the moment he received the news while he was building a new boy band for his six-part docuseries, Simon Cowell: The Next Act.
"Somebody who works with me very closely came into my room," Cowell said during a Nov. 29 podcast episode of New York Times' The Interview. "I was up in the north of England, and I could tell by the look of her face that she was upset. She said, 'Sit down,' and she told me."
"It was like — wow," he continued. "It was a bit like I felt when I heard the news when my dad passed away. It's very difficult to put into words how you feel. It's just shock. At that point, you're not really thinking clearly. I just remember saying: 'I really need to speak to his mum and dad. Can you get them on the phone as soon as possible please?' "
David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty
Liam Payne and Simon Cowell at the BRIT Awards in 2017
Acknowledging how difficult it must have been for Payne's loved ones to cope with the loss, Cowell remembered seeing the musician in his home just one year prior and him talking about "how much it means to be a dad" to his and Cheryl Cole's son, Bear Grey Payne.
"I was talking to him about there's more to life than just music; you've got to a point in your life where you've got choice now," Cowell said. "We just hung out as friends. That's why I was so shocked and surprised when I heard the news."
The music mogul first met Payne when he was a 14-year-old auditioning for The X Factor in 2008. And although Payne was eliminated when he returned to the show in 2010 alongside Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik, Cowell partnered with fellow judge Nicole Scherzinger to bring them back to the competition to create One Direction, the eventual worldwide sensation.
In the years after One Direction entered their indefinite hiatus, however, Payne began to open up about the years he spent struggling with their rapid rise to fame. During an episode of the Diary of a CEO podcast in 2021, he went as far as saying that the best way to secure the band because of how big they got at the time was to "lock us in our room" with the mini bar.
"It's very difficult, because I honestly don't know what is harder: trying to be famous or managing your fame," Cowell explained. "There was stuff I never would have spoken about then, private conversations and advice I tried to give him, which is what comes with fame, etc."
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"But at the same time, I probably had about 20 artists on my books at the time," he continued of his time working with the band. "It is a little bit like they leave the nest. You always say you're available when you need to be, but you can't follow them everywhere."
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
From left: Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Simon Cowell, Harry Styles and Zayn Malik in 2013
In the months before he died, Payne took inspiration from Cowell and served as a judge for Netflix's Building the Band, a reality competition series that challenged 50 singers to form their dream bands sight unseen.
"It's always complicated," Cowell admitted of his relationship with the late singer. "I don't know whether it's more complicated when they're young or when someone who has had success then hasn't had success and comes back and wants a second chance."
"Every artist is different," he added. "Everybody has the same ambition, which is they come on our shows or they want to work with me because their dream is to be successful. We made these shows because I understood, and still do, that there's always someone out there waiting to be discovered if you actually look."
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Source: Entertainment
Published: November 29, 2025 at 10:36PM on Source: MARIO MAG
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