Five reveal how Liam Payne’s tragic death resonated with them

Five have spoken about how Liam Payne’s death was a harrowing reminder for them after their lives spiralled out control during their height of their fame. 

One Direction star Liam suffered a fatal fall off a hotel balcony in Argentina in October 2024 at the age of 31, and a subsequent toxicology report revealed alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his system.

In a new interview, Sean Conlon, Ritchie Neville, Scott Robinson, Abz Love and Jason ‘J’ Brown called Liam’s death an ‘absolute tragedy’ as they reflected on their own struggles with being in a boyband. 

Five proved to be a pop juggernaut of the Nineties, selling more than 20 million records worldwide and making history as the only UK act to hit the Top 10 with all of 11 singles. 

But behind closed doors, the band were not getting on. 

Sean, 43, suffered a mental breakdown which led to him leaving the band in 2001, while Richie, 46, got depressed and turned to alcohol. 

Richie told The Mirror: ‘It did resonate. And I think it affected us slightly differently than perhaps it would somebody “normal”, because we’re in a band – and it was in a hotel room.’ 

When the group disbanded, Richie turned to drinking.

He said: I was enjoying a lot of drinking. Then I got depressed. Then I drank every day to forget. Three years I did that for. I’d sit and think, “what are you going to do next?” 

‘Like J, I didn’t want to get back into the music industry. Simon Cowell rang and said he wanted me. I just couldn’t do it. It was the wilderness years. I was completely and utterly lost. My partner at the time said to me, “Rich, I have never seen anyone as lost as you”.’ 

Scott, meanwhile, secretly wanted to leave after having similar mental health issues, but stayed on until the band officially folded in September 2001 when he was just 21.  

He said: ‘I was 15 years old, straight from school. To go from that to instant fame, with no space away from it or days off was wild.’ 

The singer admits he blamed himself for the band splitting and spent years trying to push for a reunion.

But J felt ‘so tainted against the music industry’ he had no interest in getting back together, until now. 

He said it was important for the band to ‘fix their broken minds for 20 years’ for them to be able to come back together. 

25 years on and Five have reformed and are touring around the UK, with the band set to appear on Strictly this weekend. 

Now a group of men in their late 40s, some of whom have settled down with wives and children, they say they are all ‘aligned’ now. 

‘We’re grown men now as well,’ J told the Daily Mail previously. ‘We understand ourselves a lot better, and we’re working on ourselves and our own minds.’ 

Sean added: ‘We massively appreciate what we’ve got. 

‘It’s not that we were arrogant or big headed the first time around, we were just too young.

‘We never had time to stop and really embrace what we’d done and what we had, now we’ve had time to process it. We never thought we’d have this opportunity again.’

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