Robbie Williams Shares Final Exchange with Liam Payne: 'It Made Sense to Reach Out'

Best-selling English pop singer Robbie Williams is mourning the loss of Liam Payne and shared a touching tribute to the late singer on social media.

In an Instagram post on Friday, Oct. 18, two days after Payne's death, Williams reminisced about his first encounters with One Direction as their mentor on The X Factor.

"I met the boys on The X Factor and 'mentored' them. I use the word mentored in inverted brackets cos I hardly did anything to be honest. I just hung out with them. They were all cheeky and lovely. I enjoyed the light hearted piss takery and thought about all the times I was that cheeky pisstaker with the Popstars that had gone before me when I was in Take That."

Payne, who has been open about his alcoholism, announced in 2023 that he completed rehab. “I just needed to take a little bit of time out for myself actually because I kind of became somebody who I didn’t really recognize anymore. And I’m sure you guys didn’t either,” he said in a YouTube video titled "I'm Back..."

Prior to entering rehab, however, Williams reached out to offer Payne advice. In the Instagram photo the former Take That singer shared, their final email exchange from 2022 is represented with handwriting. Williams' initial email isn't shared, but Payne's response is: "Thanks man that means the world. I'm nervous as hell about it but I won't back out [.] You have my word. Wish me luck."

Williams' public struggle with addiction and mental illness ultimately led to tensions resulting in his first departure from Take That in 1996. He returned to the band in 2010 after reconciling with his bandmates, although he would leave again in 2011 to focus on his solo career.

"I still had my demons at 31," Williams wrote. "I relapsed. I was in pain. I was in pain because I relapsed. I relapsed because of a multitude of painful reasons. I remember Heath Ledger passing and thinking ‘’I’m next’’. By the grace of god and/or dumb luck I’m still here."

Williams also offered a plea for people to give grace to celebrities. "We don't know what's going on in people's lives. What pain they're going through and what makes them behave in the way they behave," the "Angels" singer wrote. "Even if you don't think that celebrities or their families exist. They f---ing do. Skin and bone and immensely sensitive."

Payne had been open about his own struggles with mental health and sobriety, telling Men's Health Australia in 2019 he'd used alcohol to cope with the success of One Direction,

"It's difficult when you have the level of fame that we had in the band," he said at the time. "There have been a lot of people in trouble with mental health that aren’t really getting the help that they need, and I think that’s a bit of a problem in our industry," he told the outlet. "It’s the same s--- that happens to everyone, that’s been happening since the ‘70s."

In July 2023, Payne announced he was celebrating six months of sobriety, telling fans in a YouTube video that he'd spend nearly 100 days in a rehab facility in Louisiana.

"I just kind of feel like I've got more of a grip on life and everything that was getting away from me. I just feel like I've got more of a handle on it," he said. "I just needed to take a little bit of time out for myself, actually, because I kind of became somebody who I didn't really recognize anymore. And I'm sure you guys didn't either. I was in bad shape up until that point and I was really happy to kind of put a stopper to life and work."

Girls Aloud member Cheryl, who shares a son Bear Grey, 7, with Payne, wrote a similar statement on Instagram memorializing her ex-boyfriend.

"As I try to navigate this earth shattering event, and work through my own grief at this indescribably painful time, I'd like to kindly remind everyone that we have lost a human being," she wrote. "Liam was not only a pop star and celebrity, he was a son, a brother, an uncle, a dear friend and a father to our 7 year old son. A son that now has to face the reality of never seeing his father again."

Payne died on Oct. 16 at age 31 after falling from his hotel's third-floor balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina.