The musician from Liverpool paid tribute to her X Factor co-star
Rebecca Ferguson said she had attempted to contact her former X Factor co-star Liam Payne a week before his death because she had been “worried about him for a while”. The singer-songwriter appeared in the final of The X Factor with One Direction in 2010.
Rebecca said she was “in denial, shocked and hurt” after Liam fell to his death from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the PA reports. Rebecca said she had attempted to contact Liam “last Saturday” as she said she could see he was struggling.
Speaking on a live X space with one direction fans, the 38 year-old musician from Liverpool said: “I sent a message to some of the fans and I said: ‘I’m really worried about Liam, how do I get in touch with him?’ and no-one knew how. But I’ve been worried about him for a while because I could see that he was not in a good place, and I thought he might have been triggered by a lot of the stuff that has been in the news here lately as well.”
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Rebecca said she joined the live X chat, titled Liam and Directioners, because “I wanted to feel that I was part of something” following the singer’s death aged 31. She said: “I’m so heartbroken for that little lad that I knew.”
Discussing her time with ;Liam on The X Factor, she added: “When we all lived together, and we toured together, we were like a family. So I just keep picturing that young boy, I just keep picturing how happy he was. I’m still in a bit of shock.”
Rebecca said she found it “disgusting” that there were pictures circulating online, allegedly from Payne’s hotel room. But the singer said that it was “so lovely that he was so loved”.
It comes after Rebecca posted a statement on X, describing Liam as “young, innocent and unaffected by fame” when they met at London Euston train station and shared a taxi together to the X Factor studio. Representatives for Payne have been contacted for comment.
