Louis Tomlinson has opened up for the first time about the passing of his late bandmate, Liam Payne.
One Direction singer Liam died suddenly last October at the age of 31, when he fell from the balcony of his hotel room in Argentina.
Now, as the first anniversary of Liam’s death approaches, One Direction bandmate Louis has reflected on his grief for the first time.
In an interview with Rolling Stone UK, the 33-year-old admitted that the band’s recent 15th anniversary was a difficult time.
“It was really uncomfortable, actually, the 15th anniversary, because the feeling to celebrate is as important, if not more important than ever, on behalf of Liam,” Louis stated.
“There’s still a level in my head [where it feels] unjust and frustrating that he’s not with us anymore. So, it just brought up those feelings, although I’m still living with them anyway,” he continued.
Louis - who lost his mother Johannah in 2016, followed by the death of his sister Félicité in 2019 - went on to share why Liam’s passing felt different.
“It was really, really, impossibly difficult for me to deal with losing Liam. Naively, I thought that because at this point, I’m relatively well versed in grief for my age, that it might soften the blow. [That was] super-naive. It’s very different. I’ve never lost a friend before,” he explained.
The What Makes You Beautiful hitmaker also criticised headlines about Liam as being “deeply unfair”, in the years leading up to his passing.
“Anyone who knew him personally would know how deeply unfair that was. Anything that he got wrong in life, Liam – which, by the way, we all do daily – it was never through malice. It was only through miscommunication – him just not being able to express himself in the way he needed to,” Louis argued.
“He was just a very misunderstood person, I think, from a public perspective. If there is ever any judgment on his character, I think nine times out of 10, you can reflect on that, and the reflection is that he was someone who just wanted to be liked,” he concluded.
