Toni Cornell doesn’t want Liam Payne’s 7-year-old son, Bear Grey Payne, to grow up with the same trauma she had following her father’s death in 2017.
That’s why she slammed one media outlet for their coverage of the One Direction star’s tragic death in an Instagram Story on Oct. 17.
“I feel compelled to speak out about the disgusting, distressing photos released by TMZ including graphic images of his hotel room and body,” she wrote, according to NME.
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“Having seen those photos, I can’t help but reflect on my own experience when graphic images of my father’s death were also published by TMZ,” she continued.
Payne died of “multiple traumatic injuries” and “internal and external bleeding” after falling from the third floor balcony of his hotel room in Buenos Aires on Oct. 16, according to his autopsy report.
After news of his death was made public, TMZ published a series of photos related to the incident, including one photo that showed Payne’s arm and abdomen following the fall.
TMZ later removed the images from their website.
Cornell is worried Bear Grey might stumble upon the photos someday
Cornell compared TMZ’s coverage of Payne’s death to the outlet’s coverage of her father’s death in 2017.
Chris Cornell was a vocalist, guitarist, and lyricist for Soundgarden and Audioslave. His death on May 18, 2017 was ruled a suicide. He was just 52 years old.
“As a 12-year-old, I stumbled upon those pictures while scrolling through my iPad,” Cornell wrote in her Story. “And it was indescribably traumatizing, and something I still carry with me to this day.”
Now, Cornell says it’s time TMZ learns from their past mistakes.
“They should never have been put up in the first place,” she noted. “And it breaks my heart to think that his 7-year-old son, Bear, might one day come across them and suffer exactly as I did.”
TMZ executive producer defends decision to post images
Cornell’s criticism comes a few days after Michael Babcock, an executive producer at TMZ, defended the outlet’s decision to publish the photos during an Oct. 17 appearance on Fox 5 New York.
Babcock argued that they “did not show the full image” or his face, but rather used the tattoos on his abdomen as a way for readers to confirm it was in fact Liam who died.
“There’s a balance, and that’s obviously a conversation that newsrooms across the world have – you want to be sensitive to the family and to the friends and also while working a news story,” he said.
He added that they removed the photo as soon as police confirmed his identity.
But the damage was already done, according to Cheryl Cole, the mother of Liam’s child.
“What is troubling my spirit the most is that one day Bear will have access to the abhorrent reports and media exploitation we have seen in the past two days,” she wrote in an Instagram post on Oct. 18.
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“It is breaking my heart further that I cannot protect him from that in his future,” she continued.