Maya Henry, a model and influencer from Texas, rose to public prominence largely due to her relationship with Liam Payne, former One Direction member and renowned British singer. Their romance, which began in 2018, saw the couple become one of the most high-profile celebrity pairs in the circuit. Despite the initial allure of their relationship, the pair’s engagement was marked by turbulence, a volatile dynamic that became increasingly public. Following their breakup, legal disputes arose, and in the wake of Payne’s death on October 17 2024, the 23-year-old has shared revelations about the darker aspects of their relationship.
Who is Maya Henry, ex-fiance of Liam Payne?
Early life and rise to fame
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Born into a wealthy family in San Antonio, Texas, Maya Henry is well accustomed to life in the public eye. Maya’s father, Thomas J. Henry, is successful attorney who gained widespread fame for hosting extravagant events including her USD 6 million quinceañera. The event catapulted the Texas native into the spotlight, but she soon established her own identity as a model and influencer. Her striking looks and high-profile lifestyle led to collaborations with major fashion brands and magazines, further solidifying her place in the modelling world.
Despite her growing modelling career, Maya Henry’s relationship with Liam Payne was the most significant aspect of her public identity. The couple first went public with their romance in 2019. Payne, who is known globally for his success with One Direction, brought immense media attention to their relationship. Their engagement was announced in 2020, and the two often appeared together in the public eye, attending events and sharing moments on social media.
Speaking to Good Morning America that same year, the singer confirmed that he and Henry were “just really happy,” adding, “The last week I’ve had a birthday, my son has gone to school for the first time today, so it feels like a lot of firsts for me actually, which is great!”
The relationship between Liam Payne and Maya Henry
Behind their public displays of affection, Liam Payne and Maya Henry’s relationship was filled with personal struggles. Their engagement was mired with numerous breakups, reconciliations, and rumours of infidelity. While Payne publicly praised Henry and credited her for being his anchor in life, his personal struggles, including issues related to addiction and mental health, placed an enormous strain on the relationship.
Payne often alluded to his battle with alcohol and mental health issues in interviews, where he acknowledged his struggles. These battles had a significant impact on his ability to maintain a stable relationship. The two briefly split in 2021 as confirmed by Liam when he spoke on The Diary of a CEO podcast, saying, “I feel like more than anything at this point, I’m more disappointed in myself that I keep on hurting people. That annoys me. I’ve just not been very good at relationships.”
“I know what my pattern of things is with relationships, I feel at this point. I’m just not very good at them, so I just need to work on myself before I put myself on somebody else. And I feel like that’s where I got to in my last relationship,” He added.
Despite their split, the couple reunited shortly after. However, their final break came in 2022, when a series of photographs showing Payne with another woman were publicly posted, leading to accusations of infidelity.
The end of their engagement was marked by a period of intense media scrutiny, especially when Payne moved on to a new relationship with model Aliana Mawla shortly after the breakup. Addressing the situation at the time, Henry wrote, “Please stop sending me these pictures of my fiancé wrapped around another woman. This is not me and it’s hard enough knowing this has happened without seeing it. Enough now.”
In this tumultuous period, Liam Payne and Maya Henry’s relationship took an even darker turn. What had once been regarded as a high-profile romance turned into a legal and emotional minefield. Maya revealed that after their final separation, she sought legal recourse against Payne, filing a cease-and-desist order against him. While the exact details of the legal battle remain largely confidential, it has been reported that Henry’s primary complaint revolved around harassment and emotional manipulation.
Maya’s fictional book
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Earlier in May of this year, the 23-year-old model released a book titled Looking Forward, which she revealed was loosely based on true events leading up to their final split in 2022. Speaking on the Internet Is Dead podcast just two days prior on October 15, Henry shared, “Some of the things that fictionalised the book were, obviously, the name changes, some of the cities are different.” She went on to add, “Some of the timelines are a bit skewed.”
In another interview with People in May this year, Henry also revealed, “Every time I would tell people the story [of how we met], they would always say, ‘Oh my God, it’s like a fairytale, it’s like a movie.'”
“I feel like I had to put that in the book and take that inspiration because it just doesn’t seem real.” The book deals with hard-hitting topics like substance abuse and abortion, leading fans to draw parallels to Liam and Maya’s real-life romance. Ultimately, Maya believes that she was “desensitised” to all the red flags in their relationship.
“I was like, ‘OK, this is my relationship, and this is how it’s going to be.’ And I feel like once you get out of [it], you’re really like, ‘Oh my gosh, what was I doing, and why was I there? I definitely chose to forgive a lot of things,” she added. “When you love someone so much, you have those rose-colored glasses. You’re in denial, so you think those things will stop, and they don’t, and that just becomes an issue among other issues.”
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Legal disputes and emotional manipulation
@mayahenry Replying to @marie ♬ original sound – Maya Henry
In October of 2024, Maya posted a TikTok video claiming that the former One Directioner was harassing her as well as her family members. The influencer argued that Liam had been trying incessantly to contact her despite their being broken up for years. She said the singer had “weaponised” his fan base to send her hate. “Ever since we broke up, he messages me, will blow up my phone, not only from his phone number, it’s always from different phone numbers too, so I never know where it’s gonna come from,” she explained in the video.
“He’ll create new iCloud accounts to iMessage me — it’s always a d–mn new iCloud account. Every time I see one pop up on my phone, I’m like, ‘Here we [expletive] go again.'” She continued, “Also, [he] will email me… not only me, but he’ll blow up my mom’s phone. Is that normal behavior to you?”
Maya Henry and Liam Payne’s post-breakup relationship continued on in this vein, eventually descending into a legal dispute with Maya filing a cease-and-desist order just last week. According to sources, Payne was struggling under the weight of their legal battles before his untimely death, feeling “extremely overwhelmed” by the ongoing issues.
In her Internet is Dead podcast interview, Maya Henry shared harrowing details of Payne’s emotional tactics during their relationship, painting a picture of a deeply troubled dynamic. She claimed that Payne would often speak about his death in a way that made her feel responsible for his wellbeing. According to the 23-year-old, Payne would say things like, “‘Oh, I’m not well.'”
Henry went on to add, “He would always play with death and be like, ‘Well, I’m going to die. I’m not doing well,” painting a disturbing picture of a man who often used these statements as a method of manipulation.
According to Henry, these morbid predictions were part of a broader emotional strategy to guilt her into staying with him. She believed that Payne was using his mental health struggles as a way to maintain control, making her feel obligated to remain in the relationship for his safety. “There was one time I tried to get him help, and then he was not taking it,” she continued. “He would text my mom, ‘I’m not doing well, have Maya contact me,’ because I wouldn’t respond. It’s just always the same cycle.”
This emotional manipulation, coupled with Payne’s erratic behaviour, created an unhealthy dynamic between the two. Henry stated that Payne’s behaviour not only made her fear for his wellbeing, but also left her feeling trapped in the relationship, unable to leave due to the immense pressure his statements placed on her. These tactics reportedly intensified after their breakup, with Henry taking legal steps to distance herself from Payne to protect her own mental health.
Payne’s death in 2024 has brought these revelations into sharper focus. While Payne had publicly acknowledged his struggles with addiction and mental health in the years before his passing, Henry’s revelations after his death highlight the extent to which his personal demons had affected their relationship. Maya’s account provides insight into the emotional toll of the relationship on both parties, as well as the psychological complexities that marked their final years together.
The impact of Liam Payne’s death
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Liam Payne and Maya Henry’s tumultuous relationship reached its tragic conclusion with Payne’s death. While the exact cause of his death has been attributed to an accidental fall from his hotel in Buenos Aires, the lack of clarity about the incident has raised questions about how his mental health struggles may have influenced his untimely demise. Henry’s candid revelations about their relationship have added a deeper layer to the narrative, suggesting that Payne’s issues extended far beyond public knowledge.
In the end, the relationship between Maya Henry and Liam Payne was one marked by deep personal turmoil. What had begun as a promising engagement ended in heartbreak and tragedy, with both parties struggling to cope with the pressures of fame, mental health challenges, and the toxic dynamic that developed between them. The legacy of their relationship now stands as a reminder of the often-hidden complexities that can exist behind the glitz and glamour of celebrity life.
(Main Image: Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Elton John AIDS Foundation ; Featured Image: Mike Marsland/WireImage)
This article first appeared on Prestige Online Malaysia
