Sharon Osbourne hits out at music industry for ‘letting down’ One Direction star Liam Payne

'We all let you down'

On Wednesday night, the news broke that Payne had been found dead in a courtyard at the CasaSur hotel in the Palermo neighbourhood of Buenos Aires.

Emergency services said Payne had fallen from a third floor balcony of the hotel.

Tributes have poured in for the singer, who shot to fame on the X Factor in 2010 when he was part of One Direction, who were formed on the show by Simon Cowell.

In a post paying tribute to Payne, Osbourne, who was a judge on the ITV singing show from 2004 to 2007, said the music industry had "let down" the singer. Osbourne asked where the industry was when Payne "needed them" and who had been in his "corner."

She wrote: "Liam, my heart aches. We all let you down. Where was this industry when you needed them? You were just a kid when you entered one of the toughest industries in the world. Who was in your corner? Rest in peace my friend."

Osbourne's criticism of the music industry comes after Boyzone star Mikey Graham called on record labels to "have psychologists on their books" as a "duty of care for the vulnerability of their young talent."

The Irish man said in a post on X: "Fame can be very damaging especially in today’s world. Lots of money. Nobody to help. Lots of yes people. Nobody honest.”

Payne had previously been open about some of his struggles with fame. During an appearance on the Diary of a CEO podcast in 2021, he revealed he struggled with alcoholism at the peak of his success, and hit "rock bottom."

In 2023, he said in a YouTube video that he had spent almost 100 days in a US rehab facility and was almost six months sober, the Daily Record reports.

Police had been called to the hotel on Wednesday following an emergency call informing them of “an aggressive man who may have been under the effects of drugs and alcohol”.

The hotel's manager had called police requesting “urgent” assistance. In a full transcript of the call, the manager said Payne was “drunk with drugs and alcohol.”

He asked for police to send someone “with urgency because I don’t know if the guest’s life is in danger because he is in a room with balcony, and we are afraid he could do something that threatens life.”

It was confirmed on Thursday that Payne had died from multiple traumas and internal and external bleeding caused by a fall.

During an inspection of the area where he fell, items including alcohol and a phone were found by police. Medication was also found in Payne's hotel room, the BBC reports.

Police said there is no suggestion a third party was involved and that "everything indicates that the musician was alone when the fall happened."