Liam Payne's Funeral to Be Held This Week as Singer's Body Flown Back to UK

Late singer Liam Payne's funeral will be held this week, almost a month after the One Direction singer's tragic death.

The X Factor star's body will be flown back to the UK in the next 36 hours, according to media in Argentina.

The Sun newspaper reports that the funeral will take place at St Paul’s Cathedral in Wolverhampton, the city where he grew up.

The singer, aged 31, died after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires on October 16. Payne’s father Geoff traveled to the Argentine capital a couple of days after the tragedy.

He attended the city morgue and visited the hotel, where he stopped to look at flowers and tributes outside, and also spoke to fans.

The Sun reported that the investigation into Payne’s death took two weeks. Prosecutors said in a statement they believe he was in a state of a “semi or total unconsciousness” during a substance-induced episode when he fell.

The late superstar previously said he struggled with alcoholism at the peak of his success, describing hitting "rock bottom" to The Diary Of A CEO podcast host Steven Bartlett, before saying in 2023 that he was sober after going into rehab.

Liam first auditioned for "The X-Factor UK" in 2008 when he was 14, singing Frank Sinatra’s "Fly Me To The Moon" before he returned to the show two years later aged 16, and was put into One Direction alongside, the pop group formed by Simon Cowell on Season 7 that also featured Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik.

The band released five albums from 2011-15, all of which went platinum in the U.S. and hit No. 1 or No. 2 stateside and in the UK and were Top 10 around the world.

They scored four No. 1 singles in Great Britain: debut “What Makes You Beautiful,” “Little Things,” “One Way or Another (Teenage Kicks)” — whose video Payne directed — and “Drag Me Down.” Five others reached No. 2 in the country as One Direction became one of the top-selling boy bands ever.

A post-mortem examination report said Liam died of multiple traumas and "internal and external haemorrhage". Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office No 16 previously said it was investigating the incident as an "inconclusive death".

Liam is survived by his son Bear, seven, who he shared with Girls Aloud star Cheryl Tweedy and was in a relationship with from 2016 to 2018.