Louis Tomlinson Opens Up About The Heartbreaking Moment He Learned About Liam Payne’s Death

Almost a year from the day that it happened, Louis Tomlinson is finally opening up about learning that former bandmate Liam Payne had died—and how he struggled to wrap his mind around it.

In a recently released interview with The Rolling Stone, Liam admitted that he’d never lost a friend before, and how heartbreaking the moment was for him: “It was really, really, impossibly difficult for me to deal with losing Liam.”

But during an interview with “The Diary Of A CEO,” Liam finally delved into the topic with more detail, explaining that he’d just dropped his son off at school in LA when he got a message from former bandmate Niall Horan.

“I think Niall said something like, ‘Oh, lads, have you seen the news,’ and I knew as soon as he said that… I kind of knew what it might’ve meant.”

Tomlinson explained that he knew Payne had been struggling, and that he’d seen other friends go down similar paths. However, he recognized that he had to learn not to blame himself for Payne’s death:

“My 150% wasn’t nearly enough, and that’s where we, you know, that’s my own arrogance thinking that I could’ve helped, really, because it was so much deeper than what I could have done for him.”

Tomlinson continued by saying he wished Liam could have seen himself the way the rest of the world did:

“If he could just see, just for five minutes, just live in your head or my head and see how we perceive him, he would be so shocked … He was very, very misunderstood.”