Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - An update on Liam Pyane

Episode Date: October 17, 2024

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This John Owen Ben podcast, hey that's us, brought to you by HelloFresh, the experts and tastes that Kiwis love. Alright, time to level up the show with a bit of British class and sophistication, our dear friend Gavin Gray. Good morning to you guys. How you doing? We've got Megan here as well, Gavin. Hi Gavin. Yeah, all very good. How are you doing there? We're doing alright. We see King Charles is making his way down this side of the world,

bringing his own blood with him and a couple of doctors. You're not coming down this way, Gavin? No, not at the moment. Looking to come down soon, but won't quite have the entourage that King Charles has. But suffice to say, I think lots of concern about, you know, breaking his cancer treatment in the middle like this, and that's why I think the medics are being extra careful about what's going on. When you travel, do you travel with your own blood? Do you know, I

once, I think I went somewhere in Africa and I was advised to, but no, I didn't. Oh, really? Is it a British thing? Carry your own blood around. Travel with our own blood. I tend to just keep my blood on my body but you guys you're living differently over there uh some tragic news also over the last 24 hours gavin liam pain one direction uh what is the reaction over there in the uk yeah it's really been one of shock and we've been getting a sort of drip, drip, drip feed all day of the latest that's come out of Argentina.

And what we now know, just in the last sort of hour or more now, is that we are getting some information regarding, effectively, the moments leading up to his death. Police have said in Buenos Aires that a preliminary autopsy suggests Liam Payne died from external and internal bleeding injuries. They say he fell from a third-floor balcony in Buenos Aires that a preliminary autopsy suggests Liam Payne died from external and internal bleeding injuries. They say he fell from a third floor balcony in Buenos Aires. And the room when they went in the room was just apparently completely chaotic, muddled. They found a bottle of whiskey, a lighter, a mobile phone and also a prescription drug called clonamazepam. You can get it over-the-counter medications as well.

But, yeah, it looks like this is a very, very sad ending to what had been a man who really struggled to get to grips with the fame that came his way when he was aged just 16. Well, yeah, he still, you know, he was very young, 31 years old. He's got a seven-year-old son, which is just such a tragic circumstance. Yeah, very much so. And all sorts of messages of support pouring into him. Indeed, the family, his family have just issued a statement now,

a little earlier our time, saying, we're heartbroken, Liam will forever live in our hearts and we'll remember him for his kind, funny and brave soul. And it just ends with we're supporting each other the best we can as a family and ask for privacy and space at this awful time. But around the hotel, dozens of camera crews, hundreds of messages of support and candles, people turning up and they've been sort of breaking into songs that he's sung. Plenty of people saying what a difference he made to his life. And I know this can be overplayed, but, you know, they are often saying what a great person this was, what a great person that was when somebody dies. But he did remain, I think, really a genuinely nice person in that, you know, even

his neighbor in Buckinghamshire to the west of London reported that as a 17-year-old, the neighbor said they were looking after their siblings. Parents had gone out. And then an intruder was spotted at two in the morning and set off one of the sort of sensors in the house. And they started shouting at the intruder to get out of the garden. They hadn't got into the house, but to get out of the garden, at which point at 2.30 in the morning, Liam Payne, who was the neighbor, just popped around and said, is everything all right? Do you want me to call the police? And he stayed with them until the police arrived, just trying to calm them down. And that's what I mean. Lots of people said he

was just a genuinely nice guy. Have we heard from any of the other One Direction boys? I see that Harry Styles' mum has posted he was just a boy with a heartbreak emoji. And obviously, that's quite devastating for them. But I haven't seen any of the other boys yet. No, and Megan, he was in Argentina actually, in Buenos Aires, to see Niall Horan in concert and had been pictured with him smiling and joking, looking really happy in the hours beforehand. So most of the tributes have come from different acts, different artists who

knew him. I think we'll probably get a sort of one uniform statement from the rest of One Direction. And I think the shock is probably there for all to see on them as well. Somebody that had risen to this level of fame with them had had one pretty successful solo album, but then the second album, they always say the second one is the most difficult, and they were supposed to be ready, and then it wasn't ready, and then his management contract ran out. So he'd had some very difficult last few weeks and months.

Gavin Gray, our UK correspondent, can I ask just really quickly, he's 16 years old when he went on Britain's Got Talent. His life just changed overnight getting put together. What would it be like, you know, because you're over there in the UK, they're from the UK. What was the media scrutiny like through the years of One Direction and for him even now? Yeah, well, they tried to keep them reasonably sort of safe and secure and away from

too much media scrutiny. But of course, as they got older and then as the band split up, they were really open to all the media scrutiny that came with it. And Liam Payne really, really struggled with that. And there's no doubt that that was something that he absolutely hated. He had a number of high profile relationships and probably that made things slightly worse as well for him. He dated the Girls Aloud star Cheryl Cole, 2016. And she was actually a judge on the show that he won. They had a son called Bear together, as you mentioned, now aged seven. He also dated the supermodel Naomi Campbell and a model called Maya Henry, whom he got to engaged in 2020 before they called it off. The BBC is reporting that there was a cease and desist letter against him earlier this week from

her lawyers, quote, pertains to alleged egregious conduct, but we don't know any more about that. She posted on social media accusing him of repeatedly contacting her. Most recently, he was romantically involved in a US influencer called Kate Cassidy. So I'm afraid all this will now be poured over very, very closely by the media as that awaits in that initial autopsy, and then the post-mortem examination is carried out. Oh, geez, fame. It can be a lonely place.

That's why I always remain in the sewers of celebrity. Keep things low. That's right. You never want to get too big. Gavin Gray, as always, we really do appreciate your time. You look after yourself over there in the UK. And you all.