CELEBRITIES are often denied dignity in death, particularly when they die young or unexpectedly.
There is a thriving market in morbid memorabilia – there’s even a ‘Museum of Death’ in Hollywood where visitors can ‘enjoy’ an exhibition of celebrity autopsies, including that of Marilyn Monroe and crime scene photographs from the brutal murder of Sharon Tate.
Given the apparent fascination in celebrity deaths, it makes sense that media coverage ends up being so extensive. Social media has only amplified this, to the point where the surrounding coverage is continuous and almost inescapable.
Photographers may have captured images directly after Princess Diana’s fatal car crash but no editors were willing to publish them - but perhaps if TMZ had been around then it might have been a different story...
Usually you hear such news directly from a friend or via an announcement on the TV or radio. It’s quite a different thing to be scrolling through X and suddenly find yourself confronted with images of the partial corpse of a young man – which is how I found out about the recent tragic death of Liam Payne.
It appears that Liam died after falling from a third-floor balcony of the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires. His death was shocking, unexpected and enormously sad – a young man (and let’s not forget, a son, a brother and a father) who was seemingly in the prime of his life.
I admit that alongside the sadness, I’ve experienced another feeling – a sort of guilt. Most of the coverage surrounding Liam’s untimely death and all the recent stories relating to him, which I have consumed over the last few months have been, at best, uncharitable.
Funny, playful, witty, but all at Liam’s expense. There’s a video of him talking about Ed Sheeran giving him a song to release and one where he discusses an altercation with another member of One Direction. If you’re on TikTok or Instagram you’ve probably seen them too.
Despite well-documented issues with addiction and the fact that he clearly took his music very seriously, it was difficult not to scoff at his self-assurance. And while all seemed to be intended as a bit of harmless fun or ‘banter’, I am now wondering how it must feel to have been turned into a meme and how easily we find it to poke fun and criticise celebrities with little consideration of the fact that they are human too.
Arguably Liam was always going to be a poorly chosen target for such ruthless mocking given his struggles with alcohol and drugs – he openly acknowledged having to go to rehab to try and tackle his substance abuse.
Back in 2019 he made a programme called Liam Payne and Ant Middleton: Straight Talking, where he addressed his demons saying: “For some certain circumstances – I’m quite lucky to be here still, which is something I’ve never really shared with anyone.
“I can’t go too deep into it because I don’t know how I feel myself. I still haven’t made my peace with it, to be honest. There’re times where that level of loneliness and people getting into you every day. Just every so often, you’re like, ‘when will this end?’” Which, in hindsight, is extremely poignant and clearly demonstrates his fragility.
Unfortunately, this generation of fame seekers no longer have the ability to sign a few autographs before retreating back to relative privacy. Now everything is photographed, videoed, uploaded and shared so the entire world knows your exact coordinates within seconds.
Journalists are bound by codes of conduct and ethics but these days where anyone can be a reporter (because, as we’ve witnessed, unfolding events can be immediately communicated to millions) boundaries and restrictions are blurred, privacy is ignored, and lives (and deaths) are raked over without consideration or compassion.
Today’s fame is a ruthless beast and sadly Liam Payne won’t be its only victim.
