Liam Payne 'seemed fine' shortly before he died

Liam Payne "seemed fine" shortly before he passed away.

The pop star died in Buenos Aires on Wednesday (Oct 16) aged 31 after falling from the balcony of his hotel room. Jodie Richards, who taught Liam at her performing arts company Pink Productions, has revealed that he "looked happy" during a conversation earlier this week.

Jodie — who spoke to Liam via a series of text messages — told Sky News: "I'm really close to Liam, we've been friends for years and he was away yesterday in Argentina and I think he just wanted to touch base and check I was okay, see how everyone was back at home.

"We speak near enough every day and have done for years. Obviously he's always been there at times I've needed him even though he's not local."

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Liam told Jodie on Wednesday that he was "chilling" in Argentina, with Jodie revealing that she didn't have any concerns about him at the time.

She shared: "He was looking forward to his day, he said he was having a chill, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

"He's always somewhere more glamorous than we are so Los Angeles, Argentina, I have to look at the time difference to see where he is, he usually texts me and it's the middle of our night.

"He seemed fine, he looked happy, he looked healthy — no reason for any kind of concern and then obviously I heard it on the news."

Jodie was initially in a state of disbelief after hearing the news of Liam's passing.

She said: "I thought it was fake news, I tried to phone him. Obviously he wasn't answering. I tried to text him, it wasn't going to be a 'read' message — normally it does quite quickly, then as I turned the telly on it was getting more and more apparent it wasn't fake."

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