Louis Tomlinson further told about the death of the pair’s former ‘One Direction’ bandmate Liam Payne and said, “We all looked up to him”.

The 33-year-old said Payne had been pushing for a reunion of the band, including Harry Styles and Zayn Malik.

Liam Payne passed away at the age of 31 in October last year after falling from the hotel balcony in Argentina.

In an interview with the host of The Diary of a CEO podcast, Steven Bartlett, Tomlinson said he was in Los Angeles when he first heard of Payne’s death.

Tomlinson further explained, “In the car in LA, I found out through Niall.” The news evoked a similar reaction to when his sister Felicite died of an accidental drug overdose in 2019.

Tomlinson added, “I had the same feeling that I had with Felicite, and I think anyone has this when they’re around someone who’s struggling, my 150% wasn’t nearly enough”.

“And that’s when it’s my own arrogance thinking that I could have helped, really, because it was so much deeper than what I could have done for him. He was definitely struggling at that time in his life,” he stated.

In the post-mortem examination report, Payne died due to multiple traumas and internal and external haemorrhage after falling from the third-floor balcony of the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires.

At that time, Tomlinson shared an Instagram post in which he said he was ‘beyond devastated’ to have ‘lost a brother’.

Tomlinson told Bartlett, “When I put up my post about him, I really wanted him to be remembered the way that he should be remembered. I could just go on and talk all day about how amazing he was, but I think we all looked up to him.”

Tomlinson also revealed that Payne had been campaigning for a ‘One Direction’ reunion, but he said it would not feel ‘right’.

“Never say never… but I’m just not sure it would be right to (Payne),” Tomlinson said. “Say, for the sake of argument, 25 years, it’s like an  Oasis thing, they offer us an arm and a leg, and they’re like, ‘Come back and do this many shows’, I don’t know. (Payne’s death) just completely put a pin in all of that.”

“And the irony is, there was no one campaigning for ‘One Direction’ to get back more than Liam. I would say I came in a close second,” he concluded.

During the event of the Brit Awards in March, he was remembered with a video montage which showed him with his family and a clip from his time on The X Factor and with ‘One Direction’, who won seven gongs at the music awards before they split up.

After his band went on hiatus, Payne released his debut solo album, ‘LP1’, in December 2019, which included the song ‘Polaroid’ with Lennon Stella and Jonas Blues, and ‘Strip That Down’ featuring Quavo, as well as the track ‘For You’ with Rita Ora.