Liam Payne informed fans that he was in the hospital after suffering a serious kidney infection — and needs to reschedule his upcoming tour.
“It’s with a heavy heart I have to tell you that we have no other choice but to postpone my upcoming tour of South America,” Payne, 29, wrote via Instagram on Friday, August 25. “Over the past week I’ve been in hospital with a serious kidney infection, it’s something I wouldn’t wish on anyone, and doctor’s orders are that I now need to rest and recover.”
The former One Direction star continued: “I was beyond excited to come play for you guys. To all of you who have bought tickets: I’m so sorry. We’re working to re-schedule the tour as soon as we possibly can, but for now we will be refunding the tickets – so please look out for updates from your point of purchase. Thanks as always for the love and support, and look forward to seeing you soon.”
Payne was set to start his South American tour — which included six countries — in Peru on September 1.
Some fans may recall Payne previously sharing that he only had one working kidney after nearly dying as a baby.
“When I was born I was effectively dead. … The doctors couldn’t get any reaction from me so I had to be brought round and although it seemed like I was OK, there were underlying problems,” he wrote in the 2011 book One Direction: Dare to Dream. “I was born three weeks early and I kept being ill.”
Payne went on to explain that after having multiple tests done, they discovered that one of his kidneys wasn’t working.
“I’ve still got both kidneys but one doesn’t work so I have to be careful not to drink too much, even water, and I have to keep myself as healthy as possible,” he wrote.
Nearly a year after publishing his story, Payne announced that his kidney had fully healed. “Just been for an ultrasound on my kidney turns out its fixed form when I was a baby!!! So now I have two 🙂 #weirdnewsoftheday,” he tweeted in August 2012.
Payne has also been candid about his mental health struggles and substance abuse issues throughout the years. In July, the singer revealed that he checked into a facility in Louisiana for a 100-day program. He noted at the time that he was six months sober.
“More than anything, I want to say thank you to [my son Bear] and his mum [Cheryl Cole] for giving me a little bit of freedom to go and get well in that moment because I had to,” Payne gushed in a YouTube video at the time. “There’s no point trying to be a dad when you’ve got nothing to teach and I don’t think up until this point I really had much to say to him other than just caring for him very deeply and loving him deeply, which is obviously the most important thing.”
