Liam Payne’s devastated family as mum Karen, sisters Nicola and Ruth and 'proud' dad rally together

Liam Payne shot to fame at just 16 years old when he auditioned on The X Factor and joined forces with Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan to form One Direction

Liam Payne shared a close bond with his tight-knit family who supported him as he shot to superstardom.

The singer was catapulted to fame in 2010 when he, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan were put together on The X Factor by judges Simon Cowell Dannii Minogue, Louis Walsh and Cheryl. But as Liam’s music career took off, it was his family who were there to keep him grounded in the early days.

Mum Karen, who worked as a nurse, and dad Geoff were among Liam’s most vocal supporters, along with Liam’s big sisters Nicola and Ruth. The Paynes regularly spoke of how proud they were of the singer, who was part of the most successful boyband in history, and the Wolverhampton-based family were unfazed by Liam’s superstardom.

They were regulars in the crowd at The X Factor, and mum Karen was by Liam’s side as he travelled around the world with One Direction on tour. In the band’s 2013 documentary This Is Us, Karen was filmed sobbing as she bought merchandise ahead of their sold-out gig at Madison Square Garden in New York. She spoke candidly about “missing” her youngest child, and Karen said it was heartbreaking watching him grow up “in magazines” rather than at home.

“We miss him. He left home my little boy and became the boy in a magazine. If I have this I can still see him every day. When I see him on stage I absolutely burst with pride, but we do miss him so much,” she cried. “I shed tears just looking at him. They become someone in a newspaper or a magazine to you. I always believed Liam would make it but never this big. Never in my wildest dreams. He goes away for so long.”

Later in the film, Liam pays a visit to his hometown, and goes for a curry with his family to carry on their Christmas tradition. It was also revealed that Karen, Geoff and their daughters had flown out to New York in an effort to spend time with Liam as they hadn’t seen him for weeks. Dad Geoff, who worked as a fitter, tearfully told the cameras that he had missed out on “rites of passage” with Liam, such as buying him his first pint and seeing him finish high school.

“It's not just the mums, it's the dads that struggle, too. But he's the only lad in the family and I'll never get this time back, he's gone. And I can't give him advice because he has seen more of the world than me,” he lamented. Liam’s relationship with his sisters is just as strong, and he served as an usher at Ruth’s wedding in 2016. But his appearance at the nuptials hit the headlines as he took Cheryl as his date, and her low-key outfit sparked an online row as Ruth defended her little brother’s girlfriend.

The Girls Aloud singer wore a high-neck charcoal grey dress by Rick Owens, and Ruth took to social media to blast the online trolls for criticising Cheryl’s outfit. “I also had no say over what any guest wore to my wedding, I don't know who does have a say but considering my brother's girlfriend is one of the most beautiful women in the world she can wear anything and still look stunning as she did at my wedding,” she fumed.

Just a few weeks ago, Geoff sweetly shared a candid snap of his son on Instagram, and asked fans to “#like if you love my son!” Ruth has also featured her little brother on her Instagram page, and in 2014, she uploaded a sweet picture of Liam and Nicola, writing: “For national sibling day because i will be looking after these two forever #payneos.”

And when Cheryl gave birth to son Bear in 2017, proud grandmother Karen took to Instagram to share her delight at the new arrival. “Finally I can boast that I am a grandmother!” she wrote on Instagram at the time. “The happiest grandmother. I’m very proud of my children. Everything I’ve been doing lately is crying, because I’m very happy, now I have the most beautiful grandson in the world… Thank God.”

His family have been left “devastated” by his death, and a relative said Karen and Geoff left their home in Wolverhampton “in a hurry” in the middle of the night as they headed to Argentina. One family member who answered the door at the £600,000 home in Codsall told reporters: “We're obviously devastated at the news but we don't want to comment.” His parents left the house at around midnight, and at 9am on Thursday morning, two women - believed to be Liam’s sisters Ruth and Nicola - arrived at the property.

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