Liam Payne’s son Bear likely to inherit €30m fortune after One Direction singer died without a will

Court documents show that Payne’s former partner Cheryl Tweedy, with whom he has an eight-year-old son named Bear, has been granted the power to administer his estate.

She is named alongside Richard Bray, a top music industry lawyer who has previously worked with Ed Sheeran.

Payne (31) died after falling from a hotel balcony at the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina last October.

The singer’s total estate was valued at just under £28.6 million, but this was reduced to £24.3 million (€28m) after debts and expenses were settled.

In the absence of a will, the rules of intestacy mean Payne’s wealth is likely to go to his son, rather than his girlfriend Kate Cassidy – despite her revealing that the couple had planned to marry.

Fans were left shocked by the sudden death of the former One Direction star, who rose to fame as part of the chart-topping boyband and enjoyed a successful solo career after their split.

Last month, on the six-month anniversary of his death, Payne’s sister Ruth Gibbins said she feels “plunged underwater” without the late singer.

In an Instagram post, Ms Gibbins said: “Six months, half a year without you? My head is still screaming for you.

“Each morning on waking I feel like I am plunged underwater, gasping for air that never comes to relieve me. Living without you is impossible, so for now, I exist.

“I’m learning to laugh or smile in the right places, but mate, it’s exhausting when all I want to do is speak to you.

“In the few moments I allow myself to feel love and not just loss, I can really smile at memories of us, like last year when we were doubled over laughing at us trying to make something we’d seen on YouTube, but memories are always tinged with sadness at how unfair it is that we can’t make new ones.

“I can sometimes hear you laughing at me for walking around like Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost, looking for you everywhere I go.

“I see you though, you’re always coming through in different ways to put me back on the right path.

“I can’t process what’s happened and the finality of it, you know I will never stop doing all I can for you. I miss you loudly, quietly and in all the moments in between.

“Love you so much more than these words or my tears are capable of expressing, but I know you know this.

“For now, I’ll meet you in my dreams.” (© Evening Standard)