“I went to the hotel three times to check on him” Unanswered questions from Liam Payne’s friend’s TMZ interview as new details emerge

Liam Payne’s businessman friend Roger Nores has made a series of bombshell claims about the One Direction singer’s final hours in a new documentary with TMZ

Liam Payne’s friend Roger Nores has taken part in a bombshell interview (Image: Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Liam Payne’s friend Roger Nores has given a bombshell interview about the star’s final hours.

The One Direction singer tragically fell to his death at the age of 31 from a third floor balcony at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in October. Businessman Nores, who is from Argentina, formed a friendship with Liam in 2020 after they met at an event hosted by Vogue in London.

They had spent time together on the day Liam died. It is believed Nores is one of the five people under investigation by authorities following Liam’s tragic death as Argentinian officials have suspected him of abandoning the star. Nores has since taken part in documentary TMZ Investigates: Liam Payne: Who’s to Blame? where he made a series of claims about Liam that have gone against previous reports.

Liam and Nores had been seen together in Argentina before his death ( 
Image:
Instagram)

Nores had visited Liam on the day of his tragic death ( Image: Snapchat)

Liam was ‘in good spirits’

Nores has claimed Liam was “in good spirits” on the day of his death and was “perfectly balanced”. The claim follows on from wide reports suggesting Liam had been in a frenzied state just hours before. It has been reported Liam was drunk and disorderly soon before he fell from his hotel balcony – and one hotel employee called emergency services before the star’s death.

In the documentary, Nores said this is an incorrect depiction of the singer. “I’m a very good friend of Liam, and I was with him the day that he passed away. He was in in good spirits. He was like talking to 10 or 15 Americans that were here for a wedding. And so he was talking to them, and he was joking around.”

Final goodbye

The businessman has claimed there was “nothing out of the ordinary” when it came to Liam’s behaviour on that day after visiting him three times. Nores said what would be his last goodbye to Liam in the afternoon. In the documentary he said: “I left like at 4:05, or so, and he was in good spirits.

“He was perfectly balanced, talking to everybody, having fun, laughing, so nothing out of the ordinary. So that’s when I said, ‘bye’. He seemed playful and happy. I went to the hotel three times to check on him. He seemed tipsy but nothing out of the ordinary and that’s when I said, ‘Okay, bye’.”

TMZ’s Harvey Levin then asked: “So you left him about an hour before he fell off that balcony. And you say, he seemed fine?” To which Nores stated: “Yeah, well, he seemed he seemed playful and happy.”

Abandonment

Images of Liam’s hotel room emerged ( Image: Buenos Aires Police/AFP via Gett)
Nores has hit back at claims he abandoned his late friend. He said: “I went to a hotel three times to check on him. During that morning, he seemed tipsy, but nothing out of the ordinary.” The public prosecutor’s office in Argentina said one of the people charged had been accompanying Liam and was accused of “abandonment of a person followed by death” – which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

Toxicology report

A toxicology report shed light on the singer’s final moments, with experts sharing a devastating find about his horror fall. On November 7, a report from the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office determined that traces of “alcohol, cocaine and prescription antidepressants” had been found in Liam’s system.

Officials also ruled out suicide, explaining that “in the state he was in, he did not know what he was doing and could not understand it”. Liam suffered “catastrophic injuries incompatible with life” from the fall. According to the report, Liam “did not adopt a reflexive posture to protect himself in the fall, so that, for the moment, it can be inferred that he may have fallen in a state of semi- or total unconsciousness.”