Simon Cowell Pays Tribute to Liam Payne: ‘I Feel Empty’

Simon Cowell, who played an integral role in the rise of One Direction in the early 2010s, has issued a statement expressing condolences regarding Liam Payne’s death.

“You never really know how you feel about someone until a moment like this happens,” Cowell wrote on Instagram. “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.”

Payne died at the age of 31 on Wednesday after falling from a third-story balcony at his hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Though details are still emerging, local authorities are unclear what caused the fall and are investigating the circumstances surrounding his death.

On Thursday, “Britain’s Got Talent,” the show Cowell is currently a judge on, canceled its auditions in Blackpool due to Payne’s death. “Due to the tragic passing of Liam Payne, we have decided to postpone the ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ auditions,” a spokesperson for producer Fremantle U.K. told Variety. “Our thoughts are with Liam’s friends, family and all who loved him.”

Cowell initially encountered Payne in 2008, when he was a contestant on “The X Factor.” Though Cowell dismissed him from the competition, he welcomed him back in 2010, where he assembled the quintet consisting of Payne, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik and Niall Horan.

Though the group finished in third place, Cowell signed One Direction to his Syco Records imprint after their appearance on the show. “I’ve done this long enough that everything in music and entertainment in cyclical,” Cowell told Billboard in 2012 of why he signed the group. “[Even if] you go back to the Motown days, every time, it always comes back to 12 o’clock. It felt like that time again.”

As a member of One Direction, Payne was best known for his recognizable falsettos that became an integral part of the band’s chart-topping bubblegum pop hits — “What Makes You Beautiful,” “Best Song Ever,” “Story of My Life,” “Night Changes,” among numerous others. As one of the highest-selling boy bands in modern history, the quintet sold over 70 million records worldwide during their time together between 2010 and 2016.