How We Approach Celebrity Deaths
The death of a once-heartthrob raises discussions on nuance and domestic abuse.
Payne was characterized as the affable, funny member of 1D.
Liam Payne of former One Direction fame fell to his death on Oct. 16, from a hotel balcony in Argentina at age 31. At the time of his death, he was in Argentina visiting fellow former One Direction member, Niall Horan, and even attended his concert.
His death has stirred up murky emotions for many, especially those who grew up as huge fans of One Direction, most of whom are now young adults.
Payne, born in Wolverhampton, England, got his start in One Direction by appearing on the competition show “The X Factor”, where he was placed in the group alongside Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik.
The quintet went on to become one of the biggest boybands the world has ever seen, with the overwhelming majority of their fans being pre-teen and teenage girls.
The sweet, clean-cut English boys whose bubblegum sound, epitomized by hits such as “What Makes You Beautiful,” “Kiss You” and “Live While We’re Young,” defined pop music in the 2010s. Fans all around the world loved their charm, their group dynamic and their cheeky attitudes.
However, since the band split up back in 2016, Payne has repeatedly been the subject of criticism for misogynistic behavior.
In May 2022, Payne and Texan model Maya Henry ended their engagement for the second time. He had first begun a relationship with Henry when she was only 19 years old, as a fan of One Direction, something that stuck out as predatory to many.
A week before his death, she had sent him a cease and desist, accusing him of obsessive behavior, as well as forcing her into getting an abortion.
“Ever since we broke up he messages me, will blow up my phone, not only from his phone, it’s always from different phone numbers too, so I never know where it’s gonna come from,” she said in a TikTok video.
“He’ll create new iCloud accounts to message me - it’s always a new damn iCloud account. Every time I see one pop up on my phone I’m like, ‘here we f***ing go again.’”
How are female fans, thousands of whom grew up with him as the goofy, brotherly member of the band, supposed to reckon with the fact that multiple women had accused him of abuse? Often, when a celebrity dies, especially male celebrities, there is a type of ‘halo effect’ that swiftly takes shape.
We as a society are quick to suppress and soften the jagged edges of a person’s harmful actions committed during their lives as soon as those lives end, particularly if it was unexpected.
Something similar happened with Kobe Bryant’s shocking death in January 2020: Bryant was deeply admired by many, and tributes poured in from all kinds of people, and not just from those within the sports sphere.
Something that many people didn’t know, or simply forgot about, was the fact that Bryant had been accused of raping a 19-year-old woman back in 2003. The case was dropped around two months later, with the accuser refusing to testify, possibly due to intimidation stemming from Bryant’s social power and status in the basketball world.
His career faltered, but only for a moment in the grand scheme of things. He went on to become the picture of a quintessential “girl dad”: supportive, loving and proud of his four daughters, while also winning five NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers, among other major accolades. The shine of his overall legacy was barely dulled by the rape case, if at all.
Similarly to Payne, his death was a complete surprise; it was one of those events that people can recall what they were doing at the time of hearing the news.
Payne’s death, and the conversations started by it, are fraught with complications and opposing feelings: How can fans accept that this man they grew up admiring was harmful to the women in his private life? How do we talk about a dead person’s past damaging conduct in a way that is respectful to both how their victims want to be represented, as well as their living family or children?