Superstar Harry Styles on Thursday penned an emotional tribute to his former One Direction bandmate Liam Payne, calling the late singer “warm, supportive and incredibly loving.”

“I am truly devastated by Liam’s passing,” Styles posted on Instagram. “His greatest joy was making other people happy, and it was an honour to be alongside him as he did it. Liam lived wide-open, with his heart on his sleeve, he had an energy for life that was infectious.”

The singer from Wolverhampton in central England was first unsuccessful in his audition on the hugely popular television talent show “The X Factor”.

But he hit gold on the programme in 2010, aged just 16, joining Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik — and One Direction was born.

Over the next six years, the group enjoyed global fame and legions of screaming fans, selling more than 70 million copies of their five albums. They went on four world tours and won nearly 200 awards.

Payne, described by former X Factor host Dermot O’Leary as “a joy… polite, grateful and… always humble”, was said to be the “driving force” behind some of One Direction’s most loved songs.

(FILES) The English-Irish pop band One Direction (Liam Payne left) attends the 2015 Billboard Music Awards, May 17, 2015, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Robyn BECK / AFP)

He penned “Story of My Life”, “Night Changes” and “Midnight Memories” among others, and once referred to himself as the “first verse man” — singing the coveted first verse of most of the songs on the band’s first album “Up All Night”.

After Malik left One Direction in 2015, the band went on an “indefinite hiatus” a year later, prompting Payne and the others to start solo careers.Payne met with early success with his debut solo single “Strip That Down”, released in 2017, reaching number three on the UK Singles Chart.

Last year, he revealed he was working on a second solo album, having delayed a planned tour due to health problems, and released his last single “Teardrops” in March 2024.