Liam Payne’s girlfriend fights back tears making heartbreaking confession

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Liam Payne’s girlfriend has held back tears while describing how she is ‘struggling to accept’ his death.

The influencer, 25, dated the One Direction star for two years before he died aged 31 last October after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In the months since Kate has shared updates on how she’s been in the wake of her devastating loss, also giving her first TV interview today.

Joining Lorraine Kelly on her ITV programme to throw her support behind the new mental health campaign Marchh4March, Kate explained how she felt Payne would want her to ‘help other people’.

‘I think anybody should not be afraid to speak out. He was so open about his mental health. I know he would want me to help because he can no longer help people,’ she said.

Kate then spoke about how she sometimes finds it ‘hard to get out of bed’ since his death.

Liam Payne’s girlfriend Kate Cassidy has held back tears in her first TV interview since Liam Payne’s death (Picture: ITV)

‘I’m going through this healing journey, sometimes it’s hard for me to get out of bed in the morning and something I don’t want to do,’ she shared.

‘But I have this responsibility and this obligation that I am almost in a way … I have no choice. I have to get out of bed (for my dog) Nala and whether it’s a five-minute walk or 20-minute walk first thing in the morning.

‘Either way, it just wakes me up and refreshes my mind instead of laying in bed all day just scrolling through social media or old photos, it gets me out of bed and really, really helps my mindset and my mental health.’

She appeared on Lorraine to help launch a mental health campaign (Picture: ITV)

When revealing how her life has changed in recent months, Kate held back tears when saying she was ‘still working on accepting the fact that he’s not here anymore’.

‘I find myself talking about him so much in the present tense and it’s something where I don’t even feel the need to correct myself because that’s part of my healing journey,’ she said.

The couple were together for two years until his death in October (Picture: Ian West/ PA Wire)

‘I’m still working on accepting the fact that he’s not here anymore so it’s hard for me to refer to him in the past tense.

‘When I do refer to him in the past tense, it almost stings that little bit more, because it’s more official. I never thought that I’d be talking about him in the past tense so it’s definitely really hard to accept,’ she said as her voice began to choke and she held back tears.

She went on to say she’d been surrounded by ‘such a great support system’ which been a huge help as she experienced the ‘first time going through grief and a healing journey’.

Kate previously called Payne ‘the love of my life’ (Picture: Kate Cassidy/ Instagram)

Speaking about Payne, Kate called him ‘one of a kind’ and said he would ‘light up any room he walked into’. ‘He had this sense of humour where he really could make anything better, and his presence was just comforting and warming and that’s something I’ll never forget about him, ever.’

Discussing the campaign, Kate said it ‘spoke volumes’ to her. ‘Anything I can do in the mental health department to help anybody, I feel like I now want to be able to help people feel less alone and get through grief and healing so anything I can really do to provide that,’ she said.

Payne and Kate first met in a bar where she was working as a waitress in South Carolina in 2022. She previously admitted Payne was her ‘childhood crush’.

A week after his death she posted a statement on social media saying her heart was ‘shattered in ways I can’t put into words’ and that Payne was her ‘best friend and love of my life’.

Lorraine airs weekdays from 9am on ITV1.

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