Liam Payne’s girlfriend Kate Cassidy recounted the story of how they met in a video shared less than a month before his death aged 31.
The former One Direction star fell from the third floor of the Casa Sur Palmero hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Wednesday.
The popstar had reportedly arrived in the Latin American country earlier this month to attend his ex bandmate Niall Horan’s concert.
In a TikTok video uploaded on September 20, New Jersey native Kate recounted how she and Liam met and how their relationship almost never happened at all.
The pair began dating in October 2022 after they met at a bar in Charleston, South Carolina where Kate worked as a waitress at the time.
Liam Payne’s girlfriend Kate Cassidy recounted the story of how they met in a video shared less than a month before his death aged 31
The former One Direction star fell from the third floor of the Casa Sur Palmero hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Wednesday (pictured with Kate in his last social media post)
However, in her video, Kate told her followers how their meeting almost never happened as she had desperately tried to get off work that evening.
She said: ‘I worked at this bar/lounge place called Ritual. Me and all my friends worked there, it was only my second week at work and I didn’t want to work every weekend.
‘They put me on schedule for week two and I really wanted to get off. I tried everything in my power to get off and nothing worked out.
‘On the way to work my manager texted me and was like “Liam Payne from One Direction is here, you’re going to be taking care of him tonight.” ‘
Kate admitted she was ‘freaking out’ when she had to approach Liam’s table and ended up chickening out at first.
She said: ‘When I first approached him, I got nervous and stopped and turned around. I guess we made awkward eye contact for a second.
‘We talk about it because he said to [his friend] Conor, “Oh my God, did you see that girl walking over here? I’m not leaving this bar until I get her number.”
‘Then two minutes later I come back around. He was like, “is there anyway I can get a table inside?” He’s literally sitting inside drinking red bulls and I didn’t think anything of it, I just thought he was overly friendly, I didn’t think he was flirting with me.’
In a TikTok video uploaded on September 20, Kate recounted how she and Liam met and how their relationship almost never happened at all
In her video, Kate told her followers how their meeting almost never happened as she had desperately tried to get off work that evening
Kate told how everytime she approached his table, Liam offered her to sit down with him and soon asked for her number.
She said: ‘Everytime I came to the table to check up on him, he’d be like sit down! I have family in London and I was like, “Oh I’m going to London to see my cousin” and he was like, “I’d love to be your tour guide when you come.” I was like, OK I’m picking up the sense that you’re flirting with me.
‘He asked for my number and I didn’t realise you had to put the +1 because I’m from America. I just my area code, the 201 and he tried texting me and it kept going green, not delivered.
‘He thought I’d put the wrong number in as in like, not interested. I was freaking out all night and then he realised I forgot to put the +1 and it went through.’
They suffered another mishap later that evening as Kate’s phone died when she went to bed and Liam thought she had blocked his number.
She recalled: ‘That night, I actually didn’t plug my phone in before bed so when I woke up in the morning it was dead. Once he finally got the number to go through, he thought I blocked him because it didn’t say delivered.
‘The next morning I texted him and was like so sorry for getting back to you so late, what time is your flight back to England? He was like, before I leave for the airport I can come see you for lunch.
‘We went for lunch which went really well and then went bowling and then went on a ghost tour, we basically had one of our first dates in a graveyard.
Just days before the shocking death, Kate shared a touching post, dedicated to the star
The 31-year-old shot to fame in 2010 on XFactor with former bandmates Niall Horan , Zayn Malik , Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson , despite initially auditioning separately
He was previously in a relationship with British pop sensation Cheryl Cole and the pair welcomed their son Bear Grey on March 22, 2017
‘He extended his flight and then extended it again the next day so he ended up in Charleston for three days. That’s the story of how we met.
‘Literally, everything happens for a meeting. Don’t get off work because you want to go to a party because you never know, you could end up meeting your future husband.’
Just days before his death, Kate shared a touching post, dedicated to the singer.
The blonde beauty took a snap of the popstar riding horseback in the countryside The Sun reports.
Liam could be seen wearing a casual grey T-shirt as he sat on the horse and spoke to someone who appeared to be helping him.
Over the picture, Kate wrote: ‘I am very grateful for the simple things in life’.
Before the singer’s death, he had stared a final Snapchat post showed him happily posing with his partner Kate Cassidy as they looked into a mirror. A picture originally taken last August.
Further posts from the final moments of the star’s life showed him enjoying lunch in his hotel room, where he revealed the pair had been ‘waking up at 1pm every day’ and deciding on Forest Gump as a Halloween costume.
On Wednesday, thousands of fans gathered outside the hotel where Liam died
Some were pictured lighting candles and praying for the singer
A further tragic selfie was captioned: ‘Lovely day in Argentina’ before the star shared a photo of his hotel, writing: ‘Happy I got some time away’ followed by a heart emoji.
He shared a further photo with Kate captioned: ‘Quality time.’
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Liam Payne's pals open up about his sudden death
Following reports of his death city ambulance service provider spokesman Alberto Crescenti said Mr Payne had fallen around 40 metres and suffered ‘severe injuries which were incompatible with life.’
He said: ‘The alarm was raised at 5.04pm local time saying a person was lying in an internal patio at Casa Sur.
‘At 5.11pm an ambulance arrived and the man was certified dead.
‘Afterwards we found out he had been a famous singer. Unfortunately the injuries he had suffered as a result of the fall proved to be fatal. There was no possibility of resuscitating him.’
Liam began his pursuit to stardom when he initially auditioned for X Factor in 2008.
At only 14-years-old Liam impressed judges with his own version of Fly Me To The Moon by Frank Sinatra – but was later eliminated from the show.
However Payne gave his singing career another go auditioning for the competition again in 2010, where he quickly shot to fame as part of One Direction.
He and his former bandmates Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, were brought together by Simon Cowell and former judge Nicole Scherzinger who saw their potential as a group.
After releasing five albums with one of the biggest boybands of all time, Liam released his first solo album titled LP1 in 2019.
His singles Strip That Down co-written with Ed Sheeran climbed its way to number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart that same year.
Over the course of his music career, the popstar collaborated with the likes of J Balvin, French Montana, Dixie D’Amelio and A Boogie Wit da Hoodie.
He was previously in a relationship with British pop sensation Cheryl Cole and the pair welcomed their son Bear Grey on March 22, 2017. The parents later split in 2018.
He was previously in a relationship with British pop sensation Cheryl Cole and the pair welcomed their son Bear Grey on March 22, 2017
Following his romance with the Girls Aloud singer, Liam had an on-and-off relationship with ex-fiancée Maya Henry, and the pair called it quits in May, 2022.