The One Direction singer Liam Payne’s ex-finacée has broken her silence on his death and shared details of how his struggles with drugs tore them apart. Maya Henry has spoken out about how Liam Payne’s mental health struggles caused her to be in “unsafe and harmful situations” until their split.
Maya Henry clarified that she loved Liam Payne “very much” and doesn’t “fault him for his struggles” but his drug use made him “unrecognisable”.
Maya Henry met Liam Payne at a fashion show in Lake Como in 2018. He proposed to her in November 2019.
Liam previously spoke about how he struggled with alcoholism and drug use since he was in One Direction. Maya wrote a statement for Rolling Stone about how Liam Payne’s mental health struggles impacted their relationship.
She said: “This was someone I loved very much. 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.”
A source close to Maya Henry claimed she realised the extent of Liam’s problems during lockdown in 2020. Apparently she never reported Liam Payne to the police. The source said: “Liam had a lot of deeply personal trauma Maya was aware of that occurred well before he joined [One Direction]. When he got violent, the thought was never that he should be sent to jail. He needed help, or to get support from an institution, so he could get to the root of his problems.”
Maya wrote: “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.
“I put myself in situations that were unsafe and harmful, ignoring every red flag. 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.”
Liam Payne and Maya Henry broke up in the summer of 2021, got back together, then split again in May 2022.
Maya continued: “In the end, it wasn’t just the betrayals or the addictions that broke us — it was the realisation that I had spent years in something that was never what I thought it was. I don’t fault him for his struggles.”
Liam Payne in 2023
(Image via YouTube)
The source close to Maya Henry said Liam’s friend Roger Nores – who is now suing Liam Payne’s father Geoff Payne for defamation – reached out to Maya in May 2024. Roger allegedly wanted advice for dealing with Liam’s behaviour. The source said: “She had been trying — and failing — for years to get Liam the help he needed. Roger didn’t seem to understand the complexity of Liam’s struggles.
“Liam could go months sober, only to relapse, and it wasn’t about staying clean. He needed to face the root cause of why he used drugs in the first place.”
Roger Nores did not respond to these claims.
In May 2024, Maya Henry published a novel about an unhealthy relationship between a model called Mallory Hunt and a pop star from a boy band. The singer character struggles with drug use, and at one point smashes a chandelier with an axe.
Maya wrote: “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. 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. 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”
Maya then said on TikTok in October 2024 that Liam kept contacting her and her family, years after their split. She claimed he asked her about explicit photos. She reportedly filed a cease and desist letter against him.
In the months after Liam Payne’s death, trolls targeted Maya and accused her of being somehow responsible for his death. Some One Direction fans did also leave sympathetic comments.
Maya Henry also shared how she has been dealing with the news of Liam Payne’s death. She wrote: “After everything, what hurts the most is that even after his death, I’m left with the aftermath of his actions that continue to unfold. As I’ve uncovered the extent of his nonconsensual image sharing… I’m faced with the complexity of grieving for someone I cared so deeply about despite the pain they have caused me.”
Feature image credit: Fred Duval / Shutterstock
