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Louis Tomlinson is speaking out more about the moment he learned of Liam Payne's death.
The "Lemonade" singer recently appeared on the Diary of a CEO podcast where he reflected on the aftermath of his friend and One Direction bandmate's death, including the way he learned of Payne's tragic passing at 31 years old, per People.
Tomlinson recalled how he was "in the car" in Los Angeles when he received a call from fellow 1D alum Niall Horan who broke the bad news about Payne's death. The "Strip that Down" singer died October 16, 2024, after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Tomlinson acknowledged that Payne had been "struggling" around the time of his death and compared the feeling of his loss to that of when he learned his sister Félicité unexpectedly passed away in 2019 at 18 years old.
"And I think anyone has this when they're around someone who's struggling — my 150% wasn't nearly enough," he said, adding, "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 continued, "He was definitely struggling at that time in his life."
Following Payne's death, Tomlinson and the other members of One Direction — including Horan, Zayn Malik and Harry Styles — shared tributes for their late friend. In Tomlinson's post, he shared how "beyond devastated" he was to mourn the loss of his "brother."
"When I put up my post about him... I really wanted him to be remembered the way that he should be remembered," he said on the podcast, adding, "I could just go on and talk about how amazing he was, but I think we all looked up to him."
Tomlinson recently opened up about the grief of losing his friend in an interview with Rolling Stone UK, admitting that it was "really impossibly difficult to deal with losing Liam."