Liam Payne’s ex-fiancée Maya Henry opens up about ‘parts of his identity he wasn’t ready to fully face’

Liam Payne’s ex-fiancée Maya Henry – who was in the process of taking legal action against the former One Directioner prior to his death at age 31 – has finally broken her silence. Just days prior to his death, the model, 23, issued a cease and desist letter to Payne and made accusations that he has been ceaselessly contacting her, using different iCloud accounts to continue to reach out.

The singer died after he fell from a balcony in Argentina in October, shocking the world- including Henry. The pair dated for three years before calling off their engagement in 2022, and conflict ensued that culminated in Henry taking legal action. Now, Henry has spoken out about her ex’s death for the very first time. She said of his battle with addiction: ‘On drugs, he became someone unrecognizable — so different from his sober self. I kept hoping each incident would be a wake-up call for him to get help, but it never was.’.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video. Up Next. She continued, telling Rolling Stone that she tried to stick by Payne as he abused substances, hoping she could help him find his way to sobriety but no matter what she did things kept getting worse, leaving her feeling like she was ‘drowning.’. The statement also says that Payne was struggling with ‘parts of his identity he wasn’t ready to fully face,’ though Henry does not specify which aspects specifically.

She said that the singer put her ‘through things that broke me in ways I can’t explain. And yet, when it was all over, I was left with nothing but emptiness.’. Henry also opened up about having to continually deal with some of the choices Payne made before he died, including ‘nonconsensual image sharing’ of pictures Henry shared with him during their engagement that the singer then shared without her knowledge or consent.

The model concludes her written statement by reflecting on the complexity of grieving someone she loved deeply but who hurt her in many ways. Just days before Payne’s death Henry spoke out about his alleged harassment on TikTok. She told her 650k followers: ‘Ever since we broke up he messages me, will blow up my phone, not only from his phone, it’s always from different phone numbers too, so I never know where it’s gonna come from.

‘He’ll create new iCloud accounts to message me – it’s always a new damn iCloud account. Every time I see one pop up on my phone I’m like, “here we f***ing go again.”. ‘Also, he will email me… not only me, but he’ll blow up my mom’s phone. Is this normal behaviour to you?’. Lawyers for Henry told Metro at the time: ‘Maya Henry issued a cease and desist last week to Liam Payne following the emergence of new and concerning information.

‘She has retained attorneys Marco Crawford and Daniel Cerna to represent her. At this time, that is her only comment on the matter.’. Henry also claimed in the TikTok that there is plenty about the popstar that the public doesn’t know, saying: ‘Everything gets swept under the rug, everything gets hidden for him. I don’t know who is behind all this but nothing ever comes out about him.’. She added: ‘He’s the one that is constantly doing weird sh*t,  and also might I add, he literally said the reason he has all these people on his damn Snapchat, which he has had for years apparently, and messages, is he preys on One Direction fans because they’re loyal to him.’.

Henry briefly left social media after Payne’s death after she was targeted by vile trolls on social media unfairly blaming her for his death. Payne died on October 16, 2024 while staying at the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with an autopsy confirming that he died from multiple injuries sustained in his fall that led to ‘internal and external haemorrhaging.’. Polytrauma is a medical term for when a person has multiple traumatic injuries to their body and organ systems.

While the cause of Payne’s death is now confirmed, the hearing – which Buckinghamshire Coroner’s Court said was held on December 17 – was told it may take ‘some time’ to ascertain how the 31-year-old came to fall off the balcony. Five people have been charged over Payne’s death after he fell from a third-floor balcony of the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Payne’s funeral in November in Buckinghamshire was attended by Cheryl, the mother of his son Bear, and fellow One Direction stars Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson, along with his family and friends.

After One Direction went on hiatus Payne launched a successful solo career, releasing his debut solo album LP1 in December 2019, which included the songs Polaroid and Strip That Down featuring Quavo, and the track For You with Rita Ora. Got a story?. If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.