Liam Payne's friends were 'so concerned' about him they were 'planning intervention'

The 31-year-old ITV The X Factor and One Direction star's friends were so concerned about his "drink and drug" use before his fatal fall.

Liam Payne’s friends planned an intervention because they were so concerned about the star. The 31-year-old ITV The X Factor and One Direction star's friends were so concerned about his "drink and drug" use before his fatal fall.

A source told The Sun exclusively: "His friends have been worried about him for weeks because he was struggling with his career and wanted to release some new music but he felt he wasn't as good as his other bandmates, which they kept telling him just wasn't true. He was just always so hard on himself.

"Then in recent weeks his drinking and suspected drug use started to worry his friends, they were actually planning an intervention, it was that bad. They were heartbroken seeing him this way - but just didn't know how to go about staging a proper intervention.

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"They've been worried sick about him, he's just been in a bad place for the past few weeks. Lots of his friends had been telling him gently to get professional help or go to rehab but he just wouldn't listen. The day of his death he was acting very off and erratically. One of his friends suggested to him again to him that he should get help but this just seemed to set him off more.

"Everyone is just distraught - their only comfort is that police have said he would have died instantly in the fall so he wouldn't have suffered." It comes as Robbie Williams has shared an impassioned tribute to the One Direction singer Liam.

Drug paraphernalia was discovered in Payne’s hotel room, and he had previously been open about struggles with alcohol and drug use. Williams draws on his own history of addiction during his tribute.

“I still had my demons at 31,” he wrote – Payne’s age when he died. “I relapsed. I was in pain. I was in pain because I relapsed. I relapsed because of a multitude of painful reasons. I remember Heath Ledger passing and thinking ‘I’m next’. By the grace of God and/or dumb luck I’m still here.”