He was trying to 'finish off people's donations so they can get the operations they need'

The One Direction star was found dead in a courtyard at the CasaSur hotel in the Palermo neighbourhood of Buenos Aires last Wednesday (October 16).

Payne, 31, had fallen from the third-floor balcony of his hotel room, and it was confirmed the following day that he died from multiple traumas and internal and external bleeding caused by a fall.

The late singer’s body is still in Argentina whilst an autopsy is completed.

It has since been reported that Payne donated large amounts of money to various GoFundMe pages in the months before his death, including one night when he donated £10,000.

According to NME, Payne is thought to have given £2,300 (€2,700) to a 28-year-old man named Jack from America who had been diagnosed with stage 4 B-cell lymphoma. The same night, he donated £770 (€926) to a school shooting survivor, and £2,223 (€2,675) to a four-year old stroke survivor named Kailyn.

He also donated £3,833 (€4,612) to four-year-old Macy Shepard, who was diagnosed with a stage 2 Wilms tumour on her kidney.

Payne spoke about the donations in a number of videos on Snapchat, saying it is "despicable" that children were having to "pay for these medical things that would be free in my country.”

He said: “I’ve always felt really lucky to be in the position that I’m in and my life aspiration has been to be a superhero… but I can’t fly, I’m not a great mechanic, I wasn’t affected by radiation, and I’m not incredibly strong.

“All I know is there are websites out there for you to be able to donate to sick children that need your help.

“It doesn’t matter how small the donation is, or how big the donation is. All that matters is you look into that child’s eyes and you realise… as a father, it hits me slightly differently because I look at them and if that was my child, I would want everyone in the world to just look at me. Please, look at me and help me.”

He went on to say that for the "last few nights" he had been "spending some time" on GoFundMe trying to "finish off people’s donations so that they can get the operations they need."

“It’s despicable that, in 2024, these kids are having to pay for these medical things that would be free in my country," he added.

Payne's former One Direction bandmates have all paid tribute to him since his death, both in a joint statement and individually.

Cheryl Cole, who Payne was married to and welcomed his son, Bear, with, and Simon Cowell, who mentored One Direction on the X Factor and managed them, have also both paid emotional tributes to the singer.