In an interview released just two days before his death, Liam Payne’s ex-fiancée Maya Henry opened up about the singer’s haunting admission in recent phone calls.
Although they broke up in May 2022, Henry says that Payne was still contacting her and obsessively contacting her friends and family, so she decided to take legal action.
Payne tragically died after falling 130 feet off a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The former One Direction star had been visiting the Argentinian capital alongside his new flame fashion influencer Kate Cassidy to support former bandmate and friend Niall Horan at a gig.
The circumstances surrounding his death are currently being investigated.
While appearing on the podcast The Internet Is Dead, Henry discussed her former relationship with Payne and how she felt he was allegedly manipulating her to make her feel bad for him.
“I always felt it was a manipulation tactic… I always felt like it was so I’d continue to feel bad for him,” the Texas-reared model said. “He would always message me ever since we broke up, like, ‘Oh, I’m not well.’ He would always play with death and be like, ‘Well, I’m gonna die. I’m not doing well.’”
“There was one time I was trying to get him help and he was not taking it. He would text my mom, ‘I’m not doing well; have Maya contact me.’ Because I wouldn’t respond. And it’s just always the same cycle,” she continued.
Then, in a TikTok shared on October 6, Henry alleged that the ex-One Direction member continued to contact her and her family after she announced her book in February 2024.
And while she was frustrated, Henry claimed she continued offering him help despite everything they had been through.
“For example, when I announced my book, he did the same thing. He called my mom, ‘I think I’m not going to be around much longer.’ And I don’t play with death, so if you say this, I’m going to try and help you no matter what you’ve done, and I think he took advantage of my family’s kindness,” Henry said.
“So I was like, ‘If you want to go back to rehab, I will help you.’ Not that I wanted to be back with him, but he’s still somebody’s child, he’s still somebody’s brother. If that were my brother, I would want somebody to help him, too.”
“As of recent events that have happened, I can’t speak on legally. It’s just gotten so much worse… but I always just felt really bad,” she added.
Henry and Payne started dating in 2019 and got engaged the following year. However, in June 2021, the couple decided to end their relationship but rekindled later the same year before breaking off their engagement for a second and final time in May 2022.
Shortly after ending their relationship, Payne admitted to being at fault for the breakdown of their relationship.
View this post on Instagram
“I feel like more than anything at this point, I’m more disappointed in myself that I keep on hurting people,” Payne shared on Stephen Bartlett’s Diary Of A CEO podcast in 2021.
“That annoys me. I’ve just not been very good at relationships. And I know what my pattern of things is with relationships at this point.”
He continued, “That’s where I got to in my last relationship. I just wasn’t giving a very good version of me anymore, that I didn’t appreciate and I didn’t like being. I can honestly say I feel better out of it.
“I didn’t feel good doing what I did, but it had to happen. Just a corny way to say it was the best for us both.”
