Lou Teasdale shares heartbreaking regret over friendship with 'lost' Liam Payne

One Direction's stylist, Lou Teasdale has opened up about the tragic death of Liam Payne and how she rejects losing touch with the late dad-of-one.

The hair and make-up artist has admitted that she "wasn't surprised" he was struggling as the one-year anniversary of the singer's tragic death nears.

Lou started by explaining that she worked onX Factor and that was how she met the band. She then said she left the show to tour with One Direction for five years. When asked if she was still in touch with them, she alluded to Liam's death: "Yeah, especially with last year and what happened."

READ MORE: Lou Teasdale addresses feud with Caroline Flack's mum - 'A lot of fingers get pointed'

READ MORE: Louis Tomlinson heartbreakingly reflects on Liam Payne's 'unjust and frustrating' death

"We are like a family," she told Paul Brunson on his podcast, We Need To Talk. But she admitted she had lost touch with Liam before he died, because, by the time he died, "everyone always worried" about him and how "lost" he was.

"I do wish I kept in touch with him more because he would always reach out and try and chat. And he was always quite lost and everyone always worried about him."

She later said Liam's death and the events she felt led up to it reminded her of the death of Caroline Flack. Whilst Liam died after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina, Caroline committed suicide.

But, Lou felt that the lack of protection Liam had and the negative narrative painted about him online affected him, like it did with the former X Factor host.

"It reminded me of the Caroline situation," Lou started. "Liam in One Direction was really well protected. You know, the boys would go and do an interview and it would get edited to make them look good. That's how TV interviews for pop bands worked.

"And since then, social media has become ruthless. What people want to watch, unfortunately, has turned so toxic. Um, and everyone forgets that there's a human being when they're sharing this stuff. You know, he was an empathetic person."

Lou also said she was "not surprised he was struggling" near the end because of way hatred online was affecting his mental health. "Unfortunately, it's a part of being in the public eye. And there's not really any sort of regulation to protect them from it.

"And so, they just become very, very vulnerable. and their mental health spiralling and spiralling and there's not really anybody who can help it."

This year also marks the 15th anniversary of One Direction, as well as one year since Liam's death. Ahead of the anniversary, his bandmate Louis Tomlinson revealed what he thought about Liam.

“He was just a very misunderstood person, I think, from a public perspective. If there is ever any judgment on his character, I think nine times out of 10, you can reflect on that, and the reflection is that he was someone who just wanted to be liked.”

Louis also spoke about how difficult it was to lose Liam. “It was really, really, impossibly difficult for me to deal with losing Liam. Naively, I thought that because at this point, I’m relatively well versed in grief for my age, that it might soften the blow. [That was] super-naive. It’s very different. I’ve never lost a friend before.”

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