Liam Payne’s ex-fiancée Maya Henry has broken her silence about the former One Direction band member’s death at age 31.
“This was someone I loved very much,” Henry, 25, said in a statement to The Rolling Stone on Tuesday, February 11, while reflecting on their ups and downs. “Initially, it was the drug use and addictions that tore us apart. Anyone who has been with an addict understands how difficult that is. While I loved him deeply, he did things that hurt me in ways I’ll never fully understand, and he continued to hurt me years after we broke up.”
Henry noted that Payne’s issues with substance abuse played a role in their relationship coming to an end, adding, “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. I tried to be there for him. I loved him so much that I convinced myself I could fix things.”
While reflecting on their romance, Henry recalled how she would ignore “every red flag.”
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“I put myself in situations that were unsafe and harmful,” she claimed. “I knew there were parts of himself he was struggling with — parts of his identity he wasn’t ready to fully face, even within our relationship.”
Henry continued: “In the end, it wasn’t just the betrayals or the addictions that broke us — it was the realization that I had spent years in something that was never what I thought it was. I don’t fault him for his struggles. I stood by him in his darkest moments, through the chaos, through the pain, 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 further opened up about her complicated feelings toward Payne.
“The love I gave, the sacrifices I made — they weren’t enough because they never could be. I wasn’t just heartbroken. I felt defrauded, as so many women in my position would,” she concluded. “But what I do know is this: It wasn’t about me or anything I did. It was about struggles beyond my control. And in the end, I had to choose myself. I had to walk away, no matter how much it hurt, because staying in his world meant losing myself.”
The statement came four months after Payne’s shocking death. The former boy band member died at age 31 in October 2024 after falling from a balcony on the third floor of a hotel. The One Direction singer’s cause of death was listed as “multiple traumas,” including hemorrhages in his chest, skull and abdomen. It was later reported that a partial autopsy found “pink cocaine” — a mix of methamphetamine, ketamine and MDMA — along with cocaine, benzodiazepine and crack in Payne’s system at the time of his passing.
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Shortly before his passing, Henry reportedly filed a cease and desist letter to Payne accusing him of repeatedly contacting her.
“Maya Henry issued a cease and desist last week to Liam Payne following the emergence of new and concerning information,” Henry’s lawyers told the Daily Mail at the time. “She has retained attorneys Marco Crawford and Daniel Cerna to represent her. At this time, that is her only comment on the matter.”
Payne and Henry dated for three years before calling off their engagement in 2022. They were first linked in August 2018 and made their relationship Instagram official one year later. In 2019, Payne opened up during an appearance on KISS FM U.K. about what made his romance with Henry so special.
“If someone is going to take a picture, someone is going to do something. The difference is with her, she’s so relaxed that it helps me relax in a situation, rather than being somewhere, and talk about who is watching and what’s going on,” he told the radio show. “People are going to watch whatever. What am I supposed to do? I can’t do anything about it now. It’s too late for that. It’s just been quite nice and just going out.”
Payne proposed in August 2020. Us confirmed the following year that the twosome had split, but they later rekindled their relationship that February. They called it quits for good in May 2022 after accusations that Payne had been unfaithful. (Payne denied the allegations at the time.)
When Henry released her novel, Looking Forward, earlier this year, some fans speculated that it was loosely inspired by her tumultuous relationship with the musician.
“Some of the things that fictionalized the book were, obviously the name changes, some of the cities are different,” Henry clarified on the “Internet Is Dead” podcast in October 2024. “Some of the timelines are a bit skewed. People were like, ‘This can’t be about Liam,’ because when I was talking about the abortion, he said, ‘Oh, I’m not ready for a kid,’ and in real life that’s obviously not the case. For privacy reasons, I just wanted to leave stuff like that out of my book.”
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Later that month, Henry shared details about Payne’s alleged problematic behavior via a TikTok video. “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,” she claimed. “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—ng go again.’”
“Also, he will email me,” she continued. “Not only me, but he’ll blow up my mom’s phone. Is this normal behavior to you?”
