Liam Payne allegedly made a disturbing statement that being in a boy band “f–ked” him up just minutes before his fatal fall.
A woman, identified as Rebecca, claimed to be staying at the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Wednesday and was one of the last people to see the former One Direction singer, 31, alive, according to the Daily Mail.
“‘I used to be in a boy band — that’s why I’m so f–ked up,’” she claimed Payne told her during her 30-minute-long interaction with the singer in the hotel’s lobby.
Rebecca — who works in IT in Washington DC and was staying at the hotel for a wedding — also said Payne was displaying some bizarre behavior before his death.
She claimed that Payne was scheduled to check out of the Casa Sur Hotel on Wednesday morning but was still hanging around in the lobby late into the afternoon.
“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 4:30 p.m., but also because of his behavior,” she told the Daily Mail.
“I came into the hotel, and he was waiting by the elevator, and it was so clear he wanted someone to recognize him, there was something a bit desperate about him.”
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Rebecca said she and her friends recognized him but weren’t “bothered” by the star’s presence.
“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,’” she claimed.
Rebecca said she “decided against” hopping on the elevator and opted to wait for the next one, but claimed that “some of the other girls got in with him and halfway up, he started saying, ‘Oh, you’re Americans, I live in West Palm Beach.’”
“‘I know Americans. You guys are f–king crazy! You guys are f–king dangerous!’” Payne allegedly told the girls in the elevator.
“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 said 10 minutes after her initial interaction with Payne, she returned to the lobby, where she found the singer hanging out again, reading on his laptop.
She then alleged that Payne may have seen an email “which obviously upset him,” causing him to freak out.
“Suddenly he took the computer, shouted ‘f–k this s–t mate!’ and started bashing the computer on the ground,” she claimed.
Rebecca claimed that Payne’s alleged outburst “shocked” everyone at the high-end hotel, “especially the staff.”
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“His behavior was so out of place — people were just chilling.”
Rebecca then claimed to have approached Payne and asked, “Are you OK?” but he “just kind of grunted.”
“Then he said, ‘I used to be in a boyband. That’s why I’m so f–ked up,’” she told the Daily Mail.
“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.”
Rebecca then said a former One Direction singer’s entourage member approached about Payne’s alleged outburst.
“After he’d gone, the British guy from his entourage, who I think was called Roger, came over and apologized on his behalf, saying, ‘I’m sorry, he just gets so high sometimes,’” she claimed.
Payne returned to the lobby minutes later, alarming hotel staffers.
“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,” Rebecca claimed.
“He walked in again and just tripped and fell flat on his face, sprawling across the floor. The staff came to help him and get him back in the elevator.”
“You can just see the arm of the English guy who was with him, holding the lift door open before taking them up to the third floor again.”
In photos Rebecca shared with the Daily Mail, the singer is seen lounging on a couch inside the hotel using his laptop and treating fans by the elevator.
Rebecca said she took Payne’s photos at 4:26 p.m. local time — around the same time he allegedly commented about being “f–ked up” from being part of a “boy band.”
Police were called to the scene shortly after 5 p.m. by the hotel’s frantic chief receptionist, who begged the operator for “urgent” assistance.
“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 realized the seriousness of what had happened,” she told the Daily Mail.
“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.”
Rebecca said she spent the night away from the hotel with her friends after the horrifying experience.
She also noted that the noise of teenage fans outside in the street, singing and crying, made it difficult for them to stay.
Following Payne’s death, officials initially said he “had jumped from the balcony of his room” at CasaSur Palermo in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
However, the autopsy report said he had fallen.
The Buenos Aires Security Ministry Communications Director, Pablo Policicchio, told Page Six that investigators are still determining whether Payne’s fall was accidental or intentional.
Responding officers discovered Payne’s hotel room in disarray.
Photos showed his television smashed, a half-glass of champagne, and drug paraphernalia scattered in the room and bathroom.
The “Strip That Down” singer had struggled with substance abuse before and went to rehab as recently as last year.