Who was Liam Payne’s girlfriend? Kate Cassidy reportedly back in US at time of Payne’s death

It is understood Liam Payne’s longtime girlfriend Kate Cassidy was not with the One Direction star at the time of his death.

The Strip That Down singer, who has died aged 31, had been dating Cassidy since 2022 and they spent the last few weeks together in Buenos Aires.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Liam Payne’s girlfriend returns to the US 48 hours before his death.

She appeared in his final Snapchat post, with Payne sharing a mirror selfie of the pair minutes before he fell from the third story of a hotel in Argentina on Thursday.

However, it is understood Cassidy was in the US at the time of Payne’s death, with the photo perhaps taken days earlier.

On Tuesday she shared a video on TikTok writing, “Soooo happpiii to be back in (the) Sunshine State”.

The video caption read: “Travel with me back to Florida”.

Footage showed her bags being loaded into a car and heading to the airport.

The TikTok sparked confusion as Payne’s final Snapchat poses from hours before his death showed him with Cassidy.

Shirtless Payne was seen smiling as he posed next to an equally happy and bikini-clad Cassidy in a mirror selfie an image thought to have been posted within an hour of the fall.

Other recent posts on the pop star’s Snapchat show him enjoying his time in the Argentinian capital and lunching in his hotel room, saying he and Cassidy were enjoying late mornings, “getting up at 1pm”, and had plans to dress as Forrest Gump for Halloween.

Another selfie photo was captioned, “Lovely day in Argentina”, with the star also writing: ‘Happy I got some time away’ followed by a heart emoji.

However, it is understood the posts were either scheduled or saved photos from days earlier.

Cassidy shared footage days earlier in similar clothing, leaving fans online convinced that they were taken earlier in the week before her departure.

“Wait so Liam was alone?” one TikToker user wrote on the video of her leaving Argentina.

“I’m so confused people said the Snapchat stories with her were from today but she’s back in Florida??” another said.

“The Snapchats must’ve been scheduled. Look at her TikTok from 3 days ago they match the Snapchats posted today,” one responded.

Payne was first seen with Cassidy in October 2022 attending a Halloween party after previously dating Cheryl Cole and Maya Henry.

The following months she shared photos from their trip to Rome before making their red carpet debut in December 2022.

They sparked breakup rumours in May 2023 after they had not been photographed together in months.

However the following month they were spotted on a date night in London holding hands.

She was seen in Argentina with Payne over the last few weeks, making the trip to attend Payne’s former bandmate Niall Horan’s concert.

Footage showed them dancing throughout the show to Horan’s hits.

Liam Payne dies in Argentina

Reuters was first to report the news the singer fell from the third floor of CasaSur Palmero Hotel shortly after 5pm local time on Wednesday.

Local reporters cited emergency services.

According to La Nacion the local police station was called by the hotel manager who reported “an aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol”.

The fall was reportedly 13m to 14m and Payne suffered “very serious injuries incompatible with life”.

The head of local emergency services SAME (El Sistema de Atención Médica de Emergencias, Alberto Crescent said in a televised statement in Argentina: “At 17.04, through 911, the integrated public security system, we were alerted about a person who was in an internal courtyard of the Casa Sur hotel.

“At 17.11, a SAME team arrived and confirmed the man’s death. We later learned that he was a singer in a musical group.

“Unfortunately, he had injuries incompatible with life as a result of his fall, so we had to confirm his death. There was no possibility of resuscitation.”