Overview

• Tomlinson said on The Diary Of A CEO podcast that Niall Horan told him of Payne’s death while he was in a car in Los Angeles.
• In a Rolling Stone UK cover interview, he called the loss “impossibly difficult” and said the band’s 15th anniversary felt uncomfortable without Payne.
• He described Payne as One Direction’s “safest pair of hands” and defended him as misunderstood, calling earlier public backlash deeply unfair.
• Tomlinson said Payne had pushed hardest for a One Direction reunion, but he now feels moving ahead would not be right.
• Payne, 31, died after falling from a Buenos Aires hotel balcony; officials cited multiple traumas and toxicology found cocaine, alcohol and an antidepressant, while an Argentine court dropped some negligence charges in February and other prosecutions continue.