Kate Cassidy Was Dumped After Comparing New Boyfriend to Liam Payne

Liam Payne's Ex Kate Cassidy Says TSA Told Her She’s Unrecognizable After Cosmetic Procedures

Kate Cassidy is headed in a new direction.

The influencer—who had been dating Liam Payne for two years at the time of his death in 2024—revealed that she’d recently been broken up with after she kept comparing the man she was seeing to the late One Direction member.

“Dating after losing somebody that you genuinely thought you were gonna spend the rest of your life with is really tough,” Cassidy explained in a June 22 TikTok, “because I physically look for Liam in every single guy that I meet.”

“If they don't hit all the check marks, I tend to either back away or almost resent this person,” the 27-year-old continued. “And it's so crazy.”

As for her most recent relationship, Cassidy added that she and her ex—whom she nicknamed “Joe”—had recently met and that their romance was “moving super fast.”

“Joe was really sweet and I feel like he was kind of like a lot of things that I wanted in a guy,” she said. “He's super low key so he doesn't have any social media, which I actually really liked. I met his family, he took me on trips. Things were going really well, really quick.”

But as Cassidy candidly admitted, “I f--ked up.”

The TikToker found herself getting angry with Joe, wondering why some of his actions were different from what Payne would have done.

“He texted me yesterday and told me that we should go our separate ways because it's just too much. And I understand,” she said. “I feel sad because I don't like losing people, and I feel like, especially in the beginning of a situationship, it's so fun. And you're so excited to see where it goes.”

Instagram/Kate Cassidy

Cassidy’s breakup comes three months after she soft-launched her first romance following Payne’s tragic death in October 2024 at the age of 31. However, she did not confirm if Joe was the same man that she posted about in March.

Since Payne’s passing, Cassidy has not shied away from discussing the more difficult parts of her grief, including in a Valentine’s Day video where she explained how hard it was to get through the day without crying.

“You don’t move on from grief,” she wrote in a Feb. 14 TikTok post. “You move forward with it, carrying love in a different form. Keep living. Keep going. Live your life as fully as you possibly can.”

For a look back at Cassidy and Payne’s time together, keep reading.

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