A woman’s tweet about Liam Payne ‘jumping off his balcony,’ shared minutes before the English singer’s death was confirmed, has blown up on social media. Liam Payne died on Wednesday after falling off the balcony of his hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The former One Direction star was 31.
The woman, who goes by the name “Sorry Charlie” on X (formerly Twitter), said that a friend in Argentina who was staying at the same hotel as Liam Payne informed her that he had “just jumped off his balcony.” This tweet gained significant attention as it was posted shortly before official news of Payne's tragic death began circulating online.
The woman did not confirm the singer’s death in her tweet, nor did she make any claims about the authenticity of the information, instead clarifying that she was simply relaying information given to her by a friend who was staying at the same hotel as Payne.
“Mutual friend is in Argentina at the same hotel as Liam Payne and she said he just jumped off his balcony????? There are ambulances everywhere and things are nuts. I sincerely hope he’s okay if this actually happened. Holy smokes dude!!!! [sic],” the woman posted on X.
Take a look at the post here:
Her post has blown up with nearly 25 million views on the social media platform, with many users comparing it to the “Abbottabad helicopter tweet” that went viral in 2011. Social media users noted how the tweet was shared an hour before TMZ broke the news of Payne’s death.
{{/usCountry}}Her post has blown up with nearly 25 million views on the social media platform, with many users comparing it to the “Abbottabad helicopter tweet” that went viral in 2011. Social media users noted how the tweet was shared an hour before TMZ broke the news of Payne’s death.
{{/usCountry}}In follow up tweets, the woman also shared screenshots of her text exchange with her friend in Argentina.
Faced with backlash from Payne fans who claimed her post was insensitive and inappropriate, she replied: “I don’t think it’s that insane of me to tweet about something crazy my friend told me. I didn’t think it was anything this big, I assumed it was a mistake or something and that he was okay!”
“I didn’t think it would leave my circle. I tweeted, left for an hour or so, and came back to the news of him passing away and the tweet had blown up. Apologies to those who feel I was insensitive, it wasn’t my intention!” the woman explained.