Inside Liam Payne's friendship with energy millionaire Roger Nores

It was purely by chance that the tragic Liam Payne met Rogelio “Roger” Nores – the Argentine multi-millionaire who was with the former teenage heartthrob in the fateful hours before his death.

In 2020, the One Direction star was at a dinner party at the London home of former British Vogue editor Edward Enninful when he was introduced to the energy entrepreneur and they quickly struck up a friendship.

Nores continued to work hard behind the scenes to keep Payne clean – but friends feared he was isolating the musician.

On that crucial evening, Payne was accompanied by his ex-girlfriend Maya Henry, the daughter of high-profile Texas lawyer Thomas J. Henry

Payne and Maya separated in 2022 after a whirlwind romance. Earlier this year, Payne finally moved near Nores and some other friends in Florida as he tried to make a fresh start after years of struggling with addiction.

Friends said he had suffered some “traumatic episodes” over the past two years,

But things were looking up and he had recently moved into a $9,500-a-month Spanish-style villa in Palm Beach with his girlfriend, social media influencer Kate Cassidy, while Nores owns an apartment in Miami Beach. He loved bowling and learned to play polo.

However, over the summer, Nores traveled to Europe with his girlfriend, while Payne traveled to Manchester, England, with a team of nine, including Cassidy, family members and stylists, to film his new Netflix show “Building the Band.” with Nicole Scherzinger and Kelly Rowland.

Although sources emphasize that Nores was still part of Payne's team when the deal was originally completed, it was ultimately a decision he regretted, we're told, as he knew too many dealers in the UK.

In a note seen by Page Six, Nores wrote an email to Payne's father and his management team in August, making his concerns clear since the singer had only been clean for four months.

He wrote: “Liam lived at my friend's ranch down in Palm Beach and was monitored and treated by professional doctors who specialize in addiction from the first day he arrived. He remained completely clean throughout his stay and had no access to hard drugs.

“The plan was for him to work on preparing for a music tour and stay healthy and busy with work. A plan that he successfully pursued throughout his stay in the United States.”

However, Nores continued: “I am very concerned about his well-being while he is out there and I hope that you can bring professional doctors as soon as possible to regularly check his health, as I did when he was was in the USA.”

“I will be staying completely out of the picture and away from the association from now on and wish you all the best with Liam’s health and career.”

A former colleague said this week of Payne's Netflix deal: “We were shocked, there was no way he was in any condition to do that.”

However, a source close to the British production told Page Six that Payne was a guest judge on the series and did not appear in all episodes, claiming that he found the experience so fulfilling that he wanted to continue working with the bands after production.

Payne's friend Cassidy – who said in an emotional post that the couple had planned to get married – didn't like that they were so close, with a friend telling Page Six the model felt Nores was “too into it.” “involved in her life,” adding, “He was ever-present and always had advice.”

Nores and Payne brainstormed ideas while the friend continued: “From what I understand, Liam liked him because he's an entrepreneur and always talked to him about ideas.

“They became best friends very quickly,” the friend said. “I don't think Kate was happy about it, but she lived with the situation because what else can you do? She's not going to be the friend who says her boyfriend can't have friends.”

A source who knows Nores said: “They were opposites, Roger had never tried a drug in his life, he never drinks, he's not a party person, he's intellectual and Liam was the opposite, but they loved being together “Liam was the guy who asked 20 people for advice – and Roger was one of them.”

The pair were actually close and Nores often accompanied Payne in the recording studio. Payne even had to deny that they were lovers when he said in a Snapchat video: “There was a lot in the magazines about me and Roger being gay together – unfortunately that's not true. “It's a hard time.”

Nores also served as an intermediary between Payne and Maya, who filed for a cease-and-desist order weeks before his death, claiming Payne had “blown up” her phone trying to contact her family.

Nores, 35, certainly doesn't come from show business.

A graduate of the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, Nores founded his energy fund Stoneway Capital while also establishing contacts with the Argentine government.

“Being part of something big and being part of a world that's changing… that's always part of what drives me every morning,” he told Forbes, which named him one of the most important 30 under 30 in the energy sector in 2018 .

With the support of the German technology group Siemens, Nores had raised a billion dollars in capital at the age of 27 and built seven gas-fired power plants in Argentina, supplying electricity to over a million households.

He is now working on energy and fertilizer initiatives, they say.

When Payne and Cassidy returned to the US via a wedding in Paris and a vacation in Greece, they flew to Buenos Aires so Payne could renew his US visa and see his 1D bandmate Niall Horan in concert.

It was supposed to be a four day trip; But the U.S. Embassy forced Payne to submit to a drug test after his previous rehab stints became public.

Payne and Cassidy checked into the CasaSur hotel near Nores' house and visited Horan along with Nores' girlfriend.

We're told Liam befriended a member of the hotel's cleaning department and tricked him into getting him drugs. Local outlets in Argentina showed a recording of the hotel manager's alleged conversation with police, in which he confirmed that he fired employees after Nores told him they were selling drugs to Liam.

The last time Nores saw his friend was just hours before he fell to his death from his hotel balcony – but he had no idea of ​​the horror that awaited him.

In the hours before Payne died, Nores was with him at his hotel. An onlooker told the Daily Mail that the star was in a “bond,” adding that Nores apologized to guests for his behavior.

Shortly afterwards, at around 5pm local time, hotel staff called emergency services with a request to help a hotel guest “overwhelmed by drugs and alcohol” and “destroying his room”.

“I don’t know if the guest’s life is in danger. But he has a room with a balcony and we're a little worried that he might do something life-threatening,” the hotel's front desk manager said in a second call.

However, the star fell from his balcony at 5:07 p.m. and was pronounced dead at the scene.

An initial autopsy found numerous drugs, including pink cocaine, in his body. We're told that Nores only found out about his friend's death after the news broke.

The star's body is still in Argentina, where his father is waiting to take him back to the UK for burial.

Police are continuing to investigate who provided and purchased the drugs for Payne. A hotel worker suspected of supplying the singer with drugs on the day of his death has reportedly already been questioned by officers. There were no arrests.

When reached this week, Nores declined to comment, but told Page Six, “The loss of my friend breaks my heart.”