00:00Simon Cowell, who co-created and first signed One Direction, is speaking out following the
00:04death of band member Liam Payne at age 31. One Direction was created on Cowell's reality show
00:11The X Factor in 2010. Together with Nicole Scherzinger, Cowell selected Payne, Harry Styles,
00:17Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horne, and Zayn Malik for a boy band that ended up finishing third
00:22in the competition. Cowell then signed them to his label Psycho Records, where they went on to
00:26sell over 70 million records. Cowell wrote on Instagram Friday,
00:30You never really know how you feel about someone until something like this happens.
00:34Liam, I am devastated, heartbroken, and I feel empty. And I want you to know how much love and
00:39respect I have for you. Every tear I have shed is a memory of you. He went on to say,
00:44I wanted to let you know what I would always say to the thousands of people who would always ask me,
00:48what is Liam like? And I would tell them you were kind, funny, sweet, thoughtful, talented,
00:53humble, focused, and how much you loved music, and how much love you genuinely had for the fans.
00:59Cowell also shared that he and Payne met up last year and reminisced about, quote,
01:03all of the fun times we had together, as well as spoke about how proud Payne was to be a dad to his
01:08son, Bear. Following the news of Payne's death, Tomlinson, Malik, Styles, and Horan all paid tribute
01:13to him in a joint statement, as well as an emotional post on their individual social media accounts.
01:18Cowell also wrote in his tribute,
01:20For more on this story, go to THR.com. This is the Hollywood Reporter News.
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