Liam Payne’s ex-fiancée, Maya Henry, claimed that the late One Direction star’s team told her that the “whole world” would blame her if “something happen[ed]” to Liam.
“Even until my book was coming out, even one of his friends was calling me and my mom being like, ‘You know, this isn’t a good time for [Liam], I don’t think you should put the book out,’” Maya, 23, recalled of Liam’s team during a Monday, October 14, episode of “The Internet Is Dead” podcast . “‘He’s not doing well, and if something happens to him, you’re not only going to blame yourself – but the whole world is going to blame you.’”
Liam died two days later after falling off of his hotel balcony in Argentina, In Touch confirmed. He was 31 years old.
Maya and Liam started officially dating in 2019 and got engaged the following year. However, they called briefly split in 2021 and reconciled shortly after as an engaged couple. They broke up for good in March 2022.
In May, Maya released the book Looking Forward, a fictional book that she told People at the time was “definitely inspired by true events.” The book follows Mallory Hunt, who eventually ends up dating 5Forward! boy band member Oliver Smith. The characters experience a toxic relationship, including an ultimatum about keeping or terminating a pregnancy.
“From Dubai to Paris, London to Coachella, Mallory finds herself desperately in love with the former boy-bander despite fame, attention, and personal demons that threaten them both,” the book’s description reads. “As their fantasy love affair goes from private intimacy to public meltdown, Mallory learns the pain and heartache when your love goes from girlhood fantasy to real life drama.”
Ahead of the book’s release, Maya told People that both she and the fictional character Mallory experienced an abortion.
“If it were up to me, I wouldn’t have done it,” Maya told the outlet of terminating her pregnancy. “But then also, if I were to have made a different decision, then I would’ve lost the person that I loved. There were definitely difficult conversations about it. But looking back now, things happen for a reason.”
The Texas native explained that she took the abortion pill and experienced insufferable pain.
“It was very lonely, having these men tell you, ‘Oh, it’s going to feel like a heavy period, it’s not going to be that painful, it’s going to be easy.’ But I’m like, you’ve never even gone through anything like [this], so how would you know to tell me?” she continued to the publication. “That’s why I wanted to include it in the book, because I’ve seen so many people online talk about taking the abortion pill and it was the most painful thing for them. It’s just mind boggling to me that you could tell a woman how they’re going to feel.”
Ten days before Liam died, Maya shared a TikTok video, detailing her past relationship with the X Factor alum, which she deemed as “disgusting.”
“When you constantly enable someone they’re never gonna realize what they’ve done is bad, or they do realize and they know they can get away with it, which is what has happened with him for so many years,” she said in the October 6 video. “Everything gets swept under the rug, everything gets hidden for him. I don’t know who the hell’s behind all of this but nothing ever comes out about him.”
