Tragic Liam Payne‘s $70 million fortune is set to go to his school-age son as his grieving family mull over plans for the star to help young adults tortured by crippling mental health issues from beyond the grave.
The singer who could not conquer the demons that haunted him in life could now assist others in death with a charitable foundation created in his name, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Payne was laid to rest in the UK yesterday at a star-studded and emotion-filled private ceremony in Buckinghamshire.
The star had made arrangements for his money to go to Bear, seven, in the event of his death.
However, the lad won’t have access to his father’s fortune until he’s an adult. Trustees will manage his inheritance until he turns 18.
Payne set up several companies for Bear’s future, including a property empire. He said of Bear: “My life now is his, my money is his.”
Now his family is exploring creating a lasting legacy in the singer’s name to help others who are haunted by the same issues as the boyband hero.
It will be very much along the lines of the Amy Winehouse Foundation which helps people fight the booze and drug addictions that blighted the female British singer’s short life.
Payne was a keen artist and turned to painting to try and channel his emotions.
A showbiz source told us: “His family know his name will live on forever in his songs but they want more than that for Liam. They want to set up something that can really make a difference.
“The fact that Liam struggled so badly with mental health problems despite being a global superstar shows just how lonely a place the mind can be. If they set up a foundation to treat the trauma of the mind and it helped just one person then that would be an achievement.
“It is very early days, of course, given that he only died just over a month ago but the foundation plan is something his family will begin to work on in 2025. Liam’s love of art is something that could play into this plan with therapy courses for people struggling to cope with life.”
Tormented Payne felt like a lonely bug trapped in a glass jar as he struggled to cope with the global fame that swirled around him, he once revealed.
The star poured out his anguish in a painting tackling the burden of loneliness.
A print of the daub called No Escape Lonely Bug is currently for sale on auction site eBay for $5,200 as the owner tries to cash in on the UK-born One Direction star’s shocking, drug-fuelled death in Argentina month.
His art addressed the burden of fame and asked if people were only truly happy as children.
The work shows a humanoid creature with wings trapped in a glass bubble amid dark clouds with a finger pointing at the trapped creature – indicating how Payne, who died aged just 31 after falling from a hotel room balcony with a cocktail of drugs, including cocaine in his system, left about his life.
Liam said of the Lonely Bug work: “It’s all kind of based on lockdown…a little bit of fame twisted in there as well, and just kind of how I was feeling at the start of this.
“I think a lot of us would’ve been feeling quite the same,” he added, before sharing that he made a character that “gets locked in his cage who can [usually] fly but can no longer fly and now he’s stuck.”
And publicity released for the art revealed: “Safe, vulnerable, childlike, hopeful: It’s folklore that pop stars remain emotionally grounded in the time they became famous. Shielded in a childlike state.
“Concepted by Liam Payne, Zedd and Sillygabe during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020 when all of us, no matter who we are, became confined to our own four walls.
“Lonely Bug seeks to capture the emotions and experiences of everyone, as our own existence withdrew to a childlike simplicity. A moment in time that allowed us to reflect on what we need to be happy. A child is filled with hope and anticipation, anything is possible.
“Dreams can come true. That moment of innocence that every child is born with before any illusions get shattered, their love never torn apart. Is this true happiness? Do not let anyone dampen the child in you.”
