The friend accused of Liam Payne's death has spoken out: Three days before his death, he asked me to be his best man at his wedding to Kate
Liam Payne's close friend, Roger Norres, spoke about the final months of the former One Direction singer's life. Liam died on October 16, 2024, at the age of 31, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, after falling from a third-floor hotel balcony.
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Businessman Roger met Liam in 2020 at a Vogue party in London and they became instant friends despite their very different professions. Roger was not privy to Liam's frequent partying, but they remained friends. He discovered that Liam had overdosed in May 2024, and his manager Finnan O'Connor immediately called Roger and told him that the singer had been taken to hospital and resuscitated, writes the British Mirror. After that incident, they tried to register Liam in a drug rehabilitation facility.
"They were originally trying to put him in the unit for 90 days. That was eventually reduced to 30 days. However, Liam got out of the conversation after just three days," Roger says.
Liam then turned to him for help. They met in America, and Roger recalls that Liam had lost a lot of weight.
He was friends with Liam in the days before his death.
However, Liam reportedly tried to turn his life around after Roger found him a professional.
"He was sober for four months," Roger said, adding that Liam had started going to the gym and was really taking care of himself.
"It wasn't easy for him. He had to be under supervision 24 hours a day. Anyone who has cared for an addict knows that it's not easy. It's exhausting, but after four months I really believed he was on the right track. But then everything went wrong," he said.
Roger claims things went downhill in August 2024, when Liam's father, Jeff, encouraged Liam to return to Manchester to appear in the upcoming Netflix show, "Building The Band." Roger was against the idea because Liam "knew too many people in Britain." After Roger voiced his opinion, he had a falling out with Liam, and they made up on October 13, just three days before Liam's death.
Then Liam told him his plans for the future.
“He told me he wanted to marry Kate Cassidy. We talked about ideas for a proposal and then he asked me to be his best man. ‘You’re going to have to give a speech,’ he joked,” Roger recalled.
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Roger is one of the defendants in Liam's death.
Late last year, Argentine police officially charged five people in the death of Liam Payne. Roger Nores is charged with manslaughter.
He had previously been linked to the tragic events of October 16 at the CasaSur hotel in Palermo, where Liam died. At the time, Roger claimed to have met Payne hours before his fall from the balcony, but denied leaving the hotel before his death.
Four hotel employees were charged along with Roger.
Sued Liam's father
Roger sued Liam's father, Jeff. The lawsuit alleges that Geoff publicly defamed Norris, saying that he should have been taking care of Payne before the singer's tragic death. According to documents obtained by TMZ, Roger claims that Geoff made an official statement to the Buenos Aires police saying, "Roger is completely responsible for Liam when I'm not with him."
However, Roger denied Geoff's claims in the lawsuit. He said he never agreed to take care of Liam, but that they were just good friends. He also claims that in September 2024, he begged Liam's father to come to Wellington, Florida, to take care of Liam, but that Geoff did not return the call and did not take care of his son.
Norres named Jeff in the lawsuit because he allegedly did not share several emails he exchanged with him. According to the lawsuit, Norres told Liam's father that he could no longer devote as much time to Liam and that Jeff should step in and try to help Liam. Norres will reportedly donate all of the money from the lawsuit to Liam's son, Bear, who the singer had with singer Cheryl Cole.
