Liam Payne was 'chilling out' and showed 'no cause for concern' hours before death

told a friend he was having a "chilled out" morning before in Buenos Aires, .

The star's former performing arts teacher, Jodie Richards, revealed she spoke to the "one-of-a-kind" singer just hours before he fell from the third floor of the hotel balcony.

The 41-year-old who taught Liam in his hometown of Wolverhampton from the age of 12 admitted she initially thought the reports were "fake."

They had been exchanging text messages earlier in the day before desperately trying to call or text him.

Jodie shared: "I spoke to him about five hours before it happened so from my point of view I am really shocked.

"There was no cause for concern, he was having a chilled-out morning so I'm not sure what happened."

She explained: "It was about 4am our time [Liam messaged] saying 'are you still up'. I messaged him when I was up and taking the kids to school to say 'I'm up now'.

"I said 'what are you doing' and he said 'I'm just chilling' and he said [he was in] Argentina.

Jodie added: "I said 'that sounds good' and that was the last time I spoke to him. Hours after he had gone through all of that."

Jodie revealed that after seeing the news reports of Liam's death, she attempted to phone and message him but got no response.

"I was going to bed and someone [messaged me] and said 'please tell me it's not true about Liam'.

"I tried to phone him, I thought 'it has got to be fake'. I dropped him a message and it said it was delivered and then I turned the TV on and saw it all over."

Jodie described Liam as being "like family" and said it has been "the proudest" moment of her life to watch him become a star.

She added: "Everything that Liam has achieved is remarkable. I'm proud as his teacher but I'm proud as his friend."