A 28-year-old IT consultant from Washington DC identified as Rebecca, which is not her real name, told MailOnline: “One of my friends was due to get his suite, so the hotel staff were a little on edge because he still hadn’t checked out at 4.30pm, but also because of his behaviour.
“I came into the hotel, and he was waiting by the elevator, and it was so clear he wanted someone to recognise him, there was something a bit desperate about him.
“I was with my friends and we did know who he was, but none of us were that bothered.
“When the lift came he suddenly said to us without any prompting: ‘Yes, I’m Liam!’ really drawing it out, and then said ‘All right come on you lot, get in the elevator with me, I love a cuddle.’
Liam Payne poses in the evian VIP Suite At Wimbledon 2023 in London. Photo / Getty Images
“I decided against it and waited for the next one, but some of the other girls got in with him and half way up, he started saying ‘Oh, you’re Americans, I live in West Palm Beach. I know Americans. You guys are f***ing crazy! You guys are f***ing dangerous!’
“And then he grabs a girl who I think was with him and starts fake choking her, only lightly, but the others thought it was really disturbing.”
Rebecca returned to the lobby 10 minutes later and the Strip That Down singer appeared again shortly afterwards, carrying his open laptop from one corner as he flopped onto a sofa to read emails.
She continued: “I have a blind relative and I realised he had the laptop on its accessibility setting, for some reason, so that each time he moved the mouse, hovering over something the machine spoke out loud to say where the cursor was.
“I assumed he was doing that for the attention too. Then he opened his emails and saw one which obviously upset him. Suddenly he took the computer, shouted ‘f*** this s*** mate!’ and started bashing the computer on the ground.
“Everyone, especially the staff was really shocked. It’s a high-end hotel and his behaviour was so out of place - people were just chilling.”
Concerned, Rebecca went to check on the singer.
She said: “I went over, asked ‘Are you okay?’ But he just kind of grunted. Then he said ‘I used to be in a boyband. That’s why I’m so f***** up’.
Geoff Payne, father of Liam Payne, visits the fan tributes for the late former One Direction member outside Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires. Photo / Getty
“I couldn’t believe he’d just come out and said something like that. There was a lot more swearing and he took the laptop over and went to get back in the lift.”
Once Payne left, one of his entourage offered an apology.
Rebecca said: “After he’d gone, the British guy from his entourage, who I think was called Roger, came over and apologised on his behalf, saying ‘I’m sorry, he just gets so high sometimes.’
“I did wonder what these people with him were doing to help him, but maybe they had tried and failed. The hotel staff were freaking out and watching him really nervously. I could see one of them was on the phone to what I assumed was security or the police.
“I’ve never taken cocaine, but he was behaving exactly as I’d imagine someone would on the drug – he wasn’t focusing, and his pupils were dilated, and he was behaving in aggressive way – though not to anyone in particular.”
And a few minutes later, Payne returned to the lobby and fell “flat on his face” before being ushered back to his room.
Rebecca said: “It wasn’t long after that when the police arrived and initially we thought they were just going to kick him out, but then when the staff started running around like crazy, we suddenly realised the seriousness of what had happened.
“Some of my friends had seen him falling, it was awful, and at first they thought he might have just injured himself, but then we saw the body out in the courtyard, and later they brought him out on a stretcher, it was all so horrible.”
