Liam Payne and Kate Cassidy. DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images
One Direction alum Liam Payne had been dating influencer Kate Cassidy for two years before he died at age 31 in October 2024.
Payne and Cassidy were first linked in October 2022, and Cassidy posted the singer on her Instagram page just one month before Us Weekly confirmed news of his death on October 16. Payne died after falling from the third floor of his hotel room in Argentina, according to CNN.
Prior to his romance with Cassidy, Payne dated Cheryl Cole, with whom he welcomed son Bear in 2017, from 2016 to 2018, and was engaged to Maya Henry from 2020 to 2021.
Keep scrolling for a look back at Payne and Cassidy’s relationship:
October 2022
Payne and Cassidy sparked romance rumors after the Daily Mail published photographs of them attending a Halloween party hand in hand.
December 2022
The couple made their red carpet debut at the British Fashion Awards. Payne wore a suit while Cassidy donned a black dress with chest cutouts and a thigh-high slit.
January 2023
Cassidy shared several Instagram photos of the pair, including a snap of them cozied up in an elevator.
March 2023
Cassidy accompanied Payne to the premiere of his fellow One Direction alum Louis Tomlinson’s documentary All of Those Voices.
Liam Payne’s girlfriend, Kate Cassidy, shared a promising update about the singer’s health after he was hospitalized for a “serious” kidney infection. “I’ve gotten a lot of comments about Liam, asking how he’s doing,” Cassidy, 24, said in a TikTok video uploaded on Tuesday, September 19. “I just wanted to let everybody know that he’s […]
“What a crazy eye opening experience!” Cassidy captioned Instagram photos of herself and Payne at the event, adding that it was “so nice to meet” Tomlinson. “@Louist91 well done on such a beautiful film that everybody will love🤍.”
May 2023
A source exclusively told Us Weekly that Payne and Cassidy had “broken up.”
June 2023
One month after calling it quits, Payne and Cassidy were seen holding hands during a night out in London.
March 2024
Cassidy turned heads in a sheer striped dress while walking hand-in-hand with Payne in Paris.
August 2024
Payne sparked backlash after joking that Cassidy was “covered up for once” in a fit check TikTok video. Cassidy later defended Payne from claims that his comments were “misogynistic,” noting in a subsequent TikTok that she’d actually told him to make the joke.
“He doesn’t care at all what I wear,” she assured her followers.
September 2024
Payne was all smiles in a photo Cassidy shared of them at a wedding. The twosome also danced together in a TikTok video ahead of the nuptials.
One Direction may be on an extended hiatus, but Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik have continued to make music — and headlines — over the years. After forming and finishing in third place on the U.K.’s version of The X Factor in 2010, One Direction released four successful studio […]
October 2024
Cassidy shared a TikTok video of her and Payne on a bowling outing, noting that he “drags me to bowling at least four times a week.”
October 2024
Payne died at age 31 after falling from the third floor of the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires.
After Payne’s death, Cassidy memorialized him on social media.
“I don’t even know where to begin. My heart is shattered in ways I can’t put into words. I wish you could see the huge impact you’ve had on the world, even as it feels so dark right now,” Cassidy wrote via Instagram on October 23. “You brought so much happiness and positivity to everyone — millions of fans, your family, friends and especially me. You are so incredibly loved.”
In Cassidy’s tribute, she also revealed that Payne envisioned the pair one day getting married.
“A few weeks ago, we sat outside on a beautiful evening manifesting our lives together. I keep your note close, even though you told me not to look at it. It said, ‘Me and Kate to marry within a year/engaged & together forever 444,’” she wrote. “I know we’ll be together forever, but not in the way we had planned. You’ll always be with me. I’ve gained a guardian angel.”
Cassidy concluded, “I will love you for the rest of my life and beyond, carrying our dreams and memories everywhere I go.”
November 2024
Kate Cassidy and Damian Hurley Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Payne was laid to rest during a private funeral service in England on November 20, which Cassidy attended. She was photographed entering St Mary’s Church in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, alongside Elizabeth Hurley’s son, Damian.