Zayn Malik reschedules US tour dates after Liam Payne's tragic death

Zayn Malik (r.) has postponed his 2025 US tour after the heartbreaking news of former One Direction star Liam Payne's death.  © Collage: Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP & IMAGO / Eibner

A post-mortem examination report said 31-year-old Payne died of multiple traumas and "internal and external hemorrhage" after falling from a third-floor balcony of the Casa Sur Hotel in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires.

Police officers and the emergency services found the music star dead at the scene last week, and his body was transferred to the judicial morgue.

Malik, who left One Direction in 2015 before the group went on indefinite hiatus in 2016, previously announced he was postponing the US leg of his Stairway To The Sky tour following the "heartbreaking loss" of Payne.

The seven tour dates in Washington, New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and San Francisco have been rescheduled from January 21 until February 3 next year, Malik confirmed in a post shared on his Instagram story.

It comes after Payne's girlfriend Kate Cassidy announced that the couple had been planning to get married.

A week following the singer's death, Cassidy said in a post on Instagram: "I don't even know where to begin. My heart is shattered in ways I can't put into words."

"I wish you could see the huge impact you've had on the world, even as it feels so dark right now," she wrote. "You brought so much happiness and positivity to everyone – millions of fans, your family, friends, and especially me. You are so incredibly loved."

"You are – because I can't say were – my best friend, the love of my life, and everyone you touched felt just as special as I did."

"Your energy was contagious, lighting up every room you walked into."

"None of this feels real, and I can't wrap my head around this new reality of not having you here. I'm struggling to figure out how to live in a world without you by my side."

Fans around the world are mourning the tragic death of Liam Payne.  © OSCAR DEL POZO / AFP

Cassidy said the pair had sat "manifesting our lives together" a few weeks ago and revealed she had a note from the singer, which she has kept "close."

According to Cassidy, it said: "Me and Kate to marry within a year/engaged & together forever 444."

"Liam, I know we'll be together forever, but not in the way we had planned," she added.

Payne found fame alongside his One Direction band members when The X Factor creator Simon Cowell put them together to form the boy band on the ITV talent show in 2010.

The singer first auditioned in 2008 when he was 14, singing Frank Sinatra's Fly Me To The Moon, with judge Cowell telling him to return to the talent show two years later.