How Kate Cassidy Has Coped Since Liam Payne’s Death a Year Ago

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Kate Cassidy recently texted Liam Payne, excitedly telling him she couldn’t wait for him to come home and see the Halloween decorations she’d put up. She’d decorated after getting back early from their trip to Argentina.

Sadly, Payne didn’t return home. Just four days after Cassidy went back to Florida, on October 16, 2024, the 31-year-old former member of One Direction tragically fell from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires and died.

Cassidy shared with The Sun in February that love makes you hopeful for a good outcome. She added that, knowing what she knows now, she wouldn’t have moved away from Argentina.

She’d been with Payne for almost two years, ever since they met in 2022 at a South Carolina restaurant where she worked as a waitress. But she felt she needed to return home to their dog, Nala. She explained that they’d traveled apart before, but she never imagined things would end up the way they did.

It’s easy to get caught up in worrying about the future, but at 26, she’s been focusing on rebuilding her life a little bit each day.

Honestly, my whole world feels different now. I can’t stop thinking about Liam – he’s just constantly on my mind. It still doesn’t *feel* real, you know? Like, I’ll wake up and it hits me all over again that he’s actually gone, and that’s just how things are going to be forever. It’s… it’s just so hard.

In an April interview on the podcast *On Purpose With Jay Shetty*, she shared that she has good days and bad days, but focuses on doing her best each day. She believes that simply *trying* her best is enough to help her improve, even in small ways.

Cassidy, thankful for the support of her family and friends after Payne’s death, said she was happy to share her experience if it could help others.

She shared on the podcast that she’s never experienced the loss of someone very close to her. She found it especially difficult that, at 25 years old, the first funeral she had to attend was for her partner, and she said it still felt wrong.

As she put on the dress for the funeral, a painful thought struck her: she should have been trying on her wedding gown instead.

Since then, grief has been the opposite of a linear journey.

Cassidy explained on the show *Lorraine* in March that she’s still grieving and finds it difficult to talk about him as if he’s gone. Using past tense feels especially painful, like a final confirmation of his loss.

Despite everything, she’s still thankful for the time she spent with Payne before leaving Argentina. In a TikTok posted on October 12th, she explained that their last moments together were spent telling him how much she loved and would miss him.

Looking back on it is strange,” she explained. “It was such an emotional and drawn-out goodbye. He told me, ‘Katelyn, you’re going to be late for your flight if you keep going on like this—it seems like you think you’ll never see me again!’

Sadly, that proved to be true. However, remembering how openly loving she was has brought Cassidy both comfort and sorrow.

It still sends shivers down my spine to think that was the last time I saw him. But honestly, the way we said goodbye… it felt perfect, and I wouldn’t change a thing about it. It was just right.

See the sweet moments Cassidy has shared from her relationship with Payne:

Before Liam Payne sadly died at 31, he had been in a relationship with Kate Cassidy for two years.

However, Kate actually started hoping she and Harry Styles would be together when she was just 10 years old, as she’s shared before. She’s a big fan – she calls herself a ‘Directioner’.

While they were together, Liam and Kate loved taking care of Kate’s dog, Nala. Liam often playfully mentioned the silly, unrelated nicknames he’d come up with for her, joking that they didn’t actually have anything to do with Nala herself.

The couple frequently shared photos and videos from their travels, and they had recently been in Argentina together before Liam passed away in Buenos Aires.

Kate expressed her grief over Liam’s death two days after he died, saying it felt surreal. She had already returned home from Argentina before his fatal accident.

Kate spoke fondly of Liam, sharing, “I loved you with everything I had, and I always will. I’ll love you forever, Liam.”

Just a week after the singer’s passing, Kate shared another touching memory, expressing that he will forever remain in her heart.

She wrote to Liam, acknowledging their lasting connection, though not in the future they’d imagined. She expressed that he would always remain in her heart, now as a cherished guardian angel. She promised to love him forever, continuing to hold their shared dreams and memories close throughout her life.

In her heartfelt tribute, the 25-year-old revealed that she and Liam had been planning their future together, and he had even written about his desire to marry her.

Kate shared that a few weeks prior, she and her partner were outside on a lovely evening, dreaming about their future together. She still keeps a note he wrote her close by, even though he jokingly told her not to read it. The note said, ‘Me and Kate will get married within a year—and we’ll be together forever! 444.’

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2025-10-16 10:17