Liam Payne’s Body “To Be Flown Back Today To UK, With Funeral To Take Place This Week” – report

Liam Payne
Liam Payne Christopher Polk/Getty Images

Liam Payne’s body will be flown back to the UK in the next 36 hours, according to media in Argentina, where the former One Direction singer died last month.

The Sun newspaper reports that Payne’s funeral will take place in the UK this week, at St Paul’s Cathedral in Wolverhampton, the city where he grew up.

The singer, aged 31, died after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires on October 16.

Payne’s father Geoff travelled to the Argentine capital a couple of days after the tragedy; he attended the city morgue and visited the hotel, where he stopped to look at flowers and tributes outside, and also spoke to fans.

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The Sun reports that the investigation into Payne’s death took two weeks. Prosecutors said in a statement they believe he was “in a state of semi or total unconsciousness” during a substance-induced episode when he fell.

Payne rose to fame as part of One Direction, the pop group formed by Simon Cowell on The X-Factor UK Season 7 in 2010 that also featured Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik. The group released five studio albums from 2011-15, all of which went platinum in the U.S. and hit No. 1 or No. 2 stateside and in the and UK and were Top 10 around the world.

The group scored four No. 1 singles in Great Britain: debut “What Makes You Beautiful,” “Little Things,” “One Way or Another (Teenage Kicks)” — whose video Payne directed — and “Drag Me Down.” Five others reached No. 2 in the country as One Direction became one of the top-selling boy bands ever.