Liam Payne’s close friend is speaking out about their final conversation before the One Direction singer’s tragic death.

“We’ve been friends for many years, and he was away yesterday, obviously, in Argentina,” Jodie Richards shared in an interview with Sky News published on Thursday, October 17. “And I think he just wanted to touch base, just check that I was OK, just to, sort, of, see how everyone was back home.”

Richards formerly taught Payne at her performing arts company, Pink Productions, in his hometown of Wolverhampton, England, according to the outlet. Richards said that Payne asked her how she was doing via text two days before he died at age 31 on Wednesday, October 16. After replying she was at the gym with her son, Payne reportedly replied, “Nice.”

Richards said he later sent her a pic of himself sitting with his hand on his head on his Argentina hotel room bed, to which she responded, “Sorry just home x.”

“We speak near enough every day and have done for years,” she explained to the outlet. “Obviously, he’s always been there at times I’ve needed him even though he’s not local.”

Richards revealed that Payne last texted her early Wednesday morning. She informed him that she had just gotten to work, while he noted he was “chilling” in Argentina.

“He was looking forward to his day, he said he was having a chill, nothing seemed out of the ordinary,” Richards stated, adding, “He seemed fine, he looked happy, he looked healthy — no reason for any kind of concern.”

Us Weekly confirmed on Wednesday that Payne died after falling from his Buenos Aries hotel room’s third-story balcony. Buenos Aires emergency services chief Alberto Crescenti revealed that Payne suffered “serious injuries” that were untreatable by the time first responders arrived on the scene. An autopsy report obtained by Us on Thursday revealed that the musician sustained “multiple traumas” as a result of his fall, including hemorrhages in his chest, skull, abdomen and limbs.

“I got messages coming through from friends saying, you know, ‘Please tell me it’s not true.’ So, I had to Google it,” Richards recalled of learning of her friend’s death. “[I] couldn’t believe what was happening. I thought it was fake news, so I tried to phone him. Obviously, he wasn’t answering. I tried to text him. It wasn’t going to a ‘read’ message, which normally, it does quite quickly. And then, obviously, as I turned the telly on, it was just getting more and more apparent that it wasn’t fake.”

Richards went on to call Payne’s passing a “wicked waste of life,” noting that “he had a future ahead of him. She continued: “[His] family, friends, everyone loved him. It’s a real tragedy not only for us as friends and family, but the whole world who know him as a celebrity and a pop singer.”

Referring to Payne’s struggles with mental health and substance abuse, Richards stated: “He’s always got help if he needed it but as far as I’m concerned he was in a good place with everything going on in his personal life and his career as well, he had new things on the horizon on the telly and he seemed happy.”
Fans and celebrities quickly flooded social media with tributes to the late star, while fans held a vigil outside of the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in his honor. Simon Cowell, who helped form One Direction on the U.K.’s The X Factor in 2010, postponed Britain’s Got Talent auditions in the wake of Payne’s death. Payne’s friend and collaborator Rita Ora honored him by showing his picture on stage while singing their song “For You” during a Japan concert on Thursday.
Amid the investigation into Payne’s death, a 911 call obtained by the BBC revealed that the hotel’s chief receptionist had claimed a guest was “high on drugs” and was “trashing their room.” The caller warned police that the unnamed guest “may be in danger.” (Payne revealed last year that he was 100 days sober following a rehab stay.)