"I wish I could turn back the clock"
By Elizabeth Aubrey 25th November 2025
Simon Cowell and Liam Payne - CREDIT: Getty Images
Simon Cowell has opened up about Liam Payne’s death in a new interview, and about his last meeting with the star.
- READ MORE: Liam Payne 1993-2024: One Direction star who helped spark a pop phenomenon
Payne, the solo artist and former One Direction member, died last October following a fatal fall from a third-floor balcony at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Argentine prosecutor’s office revealed that the 31-year-old’s cause of death was due to multiple traumas and internal and external bleeding.
Cowell played a major role in Payne’s career, signing One Direction to his Syco label after their third-place finish on the 2010 season of The X Factor, on which Cowell was the head judge. The group went on to record five studio albums and sell over 70 million records worldwide.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Cowell spoke about hearing the news of Payne’s death, and recalled their final meeting together.
He explained: “When I heard the news, it really hit me. I saw him a year before this happened. He came over to my house. We talked about his son and being a dad.
“I remember saying, ‘Music is not everything. Don’t let it run your life anymore. Find something else that you are passionate about.’ You ask yourself that question: ‘Could I have done anything more?'”
Cowell went on to reflect on what “would’ve happened” to Payne if he had not been in One Direction, and he opened up about a conversation he had recently with Payne’s parents.
He said: “’What would’ve happened to Liam if he hadn’t been in the band?’ Having spoken to his mum and dad recently, all they kept telling me was he was so proud of what he had achieved.
“I wish I could turn back the clock, of course. When I spoke to him that day, I felt really good about him. I thought, ‘Wow, you seem in a really good place.’”
View this post on Instagram
At the time of his passing, Cowell shared an emotive tribute to Payne, writing: “You never really know how you feel about someone until a moment like this happens,” he wrote. “Liam, I am devastated. Heartbroken. And I feel empty. And I want you to know how much love and respect I have for you. Every tear I have shed is a memory of you.”
He continued: “I wanted to let you know what I would always say to the thousands of people who would always ask me. What is Liam like? And I would tell them you were kind, funny, sweet, thoughtful, talented, humble, focused. And how much you loved music. And how much love you genuinely had for the fans.”
One Direction’s members – Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles – also shared a joint statement, in which they expressed their devastation after Payne’s passing and said that they would need time “to grieve and process the loss of our brother, who we loved dearly.”
Tomlinson also recently spoke out about Payne‘s death saying it was “impossibly difficult for him to deal with”.
Speaking in a new interview with Rolling Stone UK, the former One Direction singer said: “It was really, really, impossibly difficult for me to deal with losing Liam. Naively, I thought that because at this point, I’m relatively well versed in grief for my age, that it might soften the blow. [That was] super-naive. It’s very different. I’ve never lost a friend before.”
At the BRIT Awards in March, an emotional tribute video aired for the singer, with host Jack Whitehall saying it was time to honour “a very special person who meant so much to so many of the people in this room and to millions of you around the world.”
