Liam Payne’s friend Roger Nores is suing the late singer’s father, Geoff Payne, for defamation. In a new federal lawsuit filed in Florida Wednesday and obtained by Rolling Stone, Nores alleges that Geoff made false and defamatory statements about him in sworn declarations to an Argentina prosecutor investigating Liam’s death, causing him damages over $10 million.
Noted on the first page of the lawsuit, Nores pledges all “net financial proceeds of the judicial proceedings for the benefit of Liam Payne’s son,” Bear.
“All the proceeds will be donated to my friend’s son,” Nores tells Rolling Stone Thursday. “Geoff needs to backtrack on his [sworn] statement as he very well knows I wasn’t Liam’s nurse or caretaker. Liam, who I miss every day, was my dear friend and an independent, brilliant, respectful free man who did whatever he wanted whenever he wanted.”
In the 263-page document, Nores claims that the father of the One Direction star made “false, misleading” statements and omitted information in his “sworn declarations” to Argentine officials while characterizing Nores’ involvement in Liam Payne’s life. Although the statements made by Geoff were made in another country, the lawsuit claims that they were “accessed by persons in the Palm Beach County/Florida” area and caused injury in said places.
The filing dissects Geoff’s declarations to an Argentine prosecutor in the days following the singer’s death, pulling out the numerous insistences where the pop star’s father claims that Liam was in Nores’ care. Geoff’s original declarations played a role in the prosecutor’s “abandonment followed by death” charge in Argentina against Nores, which carried a possible 15-year sentence. (After review, the judge overseeing the case significantly lowered the charge to “homicidio culposo,” or wrongful death, due to “imprudence and negligence,” in late December.)
Nores claims he sent a demand defamation retraction letter to Geoff’s attorneys on Jan. 8. In a response dated Jan. 10, included in the lawsuit, Liam’s estate declined to retract the declarations and accused Nores of “seeking to interfere with a police investigation by pressuring [Geoff] to change his evidence,” adding that they would “bring his actions to the attention of the Argentinian authorities.”
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“The Estate could not take this matter more seriously,” the response letter reads. “It has therefore taken the decision to support [Geoff] in this matter. [Geoff] denies, in the strongest possible terms, that he has defamed or otherwise caused any harm to your client (in the manner set out by your correspondence of 8 January 2025 or otherwise).”
Liam’s estate also slammed the lawsuit’s intent of donating proceeds of the lawsuit damages to Liam’s son as “pointless,” adding that the lawsuit causes Liam’s child with Cheryl Cole more “irreparable damage.”
Attorneys for Geoff did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
The basis of Nores’ defamation lawsuit stems from Geoff’s statements made on Oct. 22 and Oct. 26 to an Argentine prosecutor. In them, Liam’s father claims that he was only able to communicate with his son through Nores and his girlfriend, Kate Cassidy, and that Nores “had full responsibility for Liam’s care” after making himself “entirely available” to Liam, among other allegations.
Pushing back on the communication claim, Nores insists in the lawsuit that “Geoff’s family communicated with Liam via Liam’s laptop.”
To nearly every claim, Nores responds by writing that he “never agreed to be the caretaker of Liam… did not have a legal duty to Liam,” and that the two were simply “dear friends.” He also refers to an August email Nores sent to Geoff (which was included in the lawsuit as evidence) declining to be in charge of Liam’s care. It also claims that Nores requested Geoff come to Wellington, Florida, in September 2024, where Liam was living at the time, to care for the singer, but Geoff declined.
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Nores also rebuts Geoff’s claim that during a 10-week stay in Florida for Liam’s recovery over the summer, the singer was “always monitored by psychologists and psychiatrists, all of Roger’s contacts.” Nores denies this, writing that Geoff was Liam’s “self-declared caretaker” and that Geoff “did not retain” their contacts by choice.
Part of Geoff’s declaration to the Argentine prosecutor includes that Nores, Kate, and Liam’s bodyguard were part of a “care group” in charge of the singer and that the group’s objective was to “keep Liam busy” since he “could not be left alone in the vulnerable situation in which he was.” He went on to claim that Nores “manipulated” Liam to fire his bodyguard after Liam’s psychiatrist resigned in September and that Nores helped hire a new psychiatrist for the singer.
“Liam went to see another psychiatrist with Rogelio Nores and both hid from him the problems with alcohol and drugs that Liam had in order for him to prescribe psychiatric medication and avoid giving the care recommendations that [a previous doctor] had given them,” Geoff allegedly told the prosecutor. “Because of this situation, Vata decided to go see the new psychiatrist alone and exposed the real problems that Liam had. In view of this fact, Rogelio Nores spoke with Liam and manipulated him to fire him.”
Along with his typical responses of never being Liam’s caretaker, Nores said that he and Liam never visited another psychologist, claiming that Geoff’s sworn statement was “100% fiction” and had “no independent corroborative basis” to it. Nores further claims that upon the bodyguard’s firing, Geoff became the “self-declared caretaker of Liam” and that the singer’s father “never provided for a temporary or new bodyguard” for Liam.
On Jan. 13, Nores’ legal team sent a letter to the Geoff estate asking it to provide “documents or independent corroboration that proves the contents” of the Jan. 8 letter sent by Nores are inaccurate. Nores alleges that Geoff has yet to respond.
“Liam was an independent person, an adult who had control over all his personal, financial, and professional decisions and made those decisions independently,” reads the lawsuit. “To the knowledge of [Nores] and on information and belief, Liam was not under any legal imposed and monitored care program, guardianship or conservatorship or the like.”
As an exhibit, Nores includes an August 2024 email where he allegedly communicates with Liam, Geoff, and Liam’s business manager that he was “going to stay fully out of the picture and disconnected from now on” and that he “never had access” to Liam’s finances. He also claims that he helped Liam close a deal with Netflix to be a judge on Building the Band, that he paid for a private jet for Liam to South America, and that the singer was preparing for a tour.
“I never received any salary in spite of having paid for a big part of his expenses during his stay,” Nores wrote in the Aug. 23 letter, later adding, “I don’t need to get reimbursed for my out of pocket expenses as I helped him out as a friend. Please note that now that he is back in the UK I decided to stop helping him as I don’t live in Europe and frankly don’t have the time anymore due to my business schedule.”
“I’m really concerned for his well-being while he is out there and I hope you can bring professional doctors to check on his health regularly as soon as possible as I did while he was out in the US,” Nores wrote. “I am going to stay fully out of the picture and disconnected from now on and I wish you all the best with Liam’s health and career.”
The new filing comes several weeks after the judge handling Liam’s death investigation charged Nores and two hotel workers with wrongful death and ordered jail time to two others who’re accused of selling the singer drugs. (The two alleged drug dealers have been arrested.)
In her ruling, the judge claimed that Nores had taken the “position of guarantor” to Liam’s family and was the main point of contact for the musician at the hotel. She also stated that Liam died after trying to climb off the balcony while in a drugged state.
