Zayn Malik is said to have been left reeling following the news of former One Direction bandmate Liam Payne’s tragic death.
While neither he or the rest of the remaining members of the chart-topping boyband have yet to put out an official statement, a source close to him has given an insight into how he took the news.
A US music producer working with Zayn from One Direction has said that understandably the singer is in “shock”.
They added to Mail Online that Malik’s loved ones are now concerned for his own wellbeing and “don't want him to be alone” at the moment, so he is “surrounded by his friends.”
They told the publication: "Zayn was told in the early hours of this morning and has been in absolute bits. He is in shock, and his parents have been in touch with Liam’s family to offer their support and condolences. People close to Zayn don’t want him to be alone at the moment, so he is surrounded by friends."
The insider added that it had been some time since Malik and Payne had spoken' due to “issues they had with one another in the past.” However, it was said that the former bandmates still “respected each other from a distance”.
Payne died aged 31 in Argentina on Wednesday evening after falling from the balcony of his hotel room in Buenos Aires, police said.
He plunged from the third floor of the Casa Sur Hotel in the Palermo neighbourhood resulting in "extremely serious injuries", according to authorities. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The circumstances around his death are still being investigated, however Argentina's prosecutor office has confirmed that a series of substances were seized from Payne's hotel room.
A search of Payne's room uncovered "what appeared to be narcotics, alcohol, destroyed objects and furniture", it added.
It is believed that the Wolverhampton-born star - who had been open about his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction in the past - was alone at the time of his fall.
The investigation is however looking into the "possible involvement of third parties in the events prior".
One Direction - which also consisted of members Harry Styles, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson - became one of the biggest pop groups in the world with five albums and four world tours after being put together by Simon Cowell on the X-Factor in 2010.
The band went on indefinite hiatus after Malik announced his departure in 2015.
All of the members later went on to forge solo careers with varying levels of success.
In 2021, Wolverhampton-born Payne opened up about struggling with alcohol and prescription drug addiction at the height of One Direction’s fame.
Appearing on Steven Bartlett’s The Diary of a CEO podcast host, he admitted that he "didn't like myself very much" during the boy band days.
He said they were filled with "pills and booze" and "moments of suicidal ideation."
Payne explained: "There is some stuff that I’ve definitely never spoken about. It was really, really, really severe. It was a problem."
He went on to tell how things got much worse when they were on tours, locked up in hotel rooms for days.
"In the band... the best way to secure us, because of how big we’d got, was just to lock us in our rooms. What’s in the room? A mini-bar," he said.
“So at a certain point I thought, I’m just going to have a party-for-one and that seemed to carry on for many years of my life. Then you look back at how long you’ve been drinking and you’re like, 'Jesus Christ, that's a long time.'”
