Liam Payne, Maya Henry. Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Elton John AIDS Foundation
Liam Payne and ex-fiancée Maya Henry had an on and off relationship.
The One Direction alum was first linked to Henry in August 2018, shortly after he and ex-girlfriend Cheryl Cole broke up. One year later, Payne and Henry made their relationship Instagram official.
“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,” Payne said on KISS FM U.K. in September 2019. “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.”
He added, “I’ve managed to explore a lot more of London than I ever have actually in my life, which has been quite fun. My life has been quite normal recently, which has been a break.”
Dave Benett/Getty Images; Karwai Tang/WireImage Liam Payne’s ex-fiancée, Maya Henry, has pulled from her real life to write her debut novel, Looking Forward. “Obviously the book is fiction, [but it’s] definitely inspired by true events.” Henry, 23, told People in an interview published on Wednesday, May 15. “[The main character] Mallory is very similar to […]
Payne proposed in August 2020, but they split the next year. Payne and Henry later reconciled but called it quits for good in May 2022 after he was accused of cheating. (Payne denied the allegations at the time.)
When Henry released a novel inspired by the tumultuous relationship in 2024, Looking Forward, some fans were convinced she pulled inspiration from Payne.
“Some of the things that fictionalized the book were, obviously the name changes, some of the cities are different,” Henry said 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.”
Payne, who died weeks later at the age of 31, shared son Bear with ex Cole.
Keep scrolling to revisit Payne and Henry’s relationship timeline:
2018
Payne and Henry started dating when they were 26 and 18, respectively. He never publicly addressed the age gap.
August 2020
Two years later, Us Weekly confirmed that Payne proposed.
June 2021
During an appearance on the “Diary of a CEO” podcast, Payne revealed that he was single.
“I feel like more than anything at this point, I’m more disappointed in myself that I keep on hurting people,” he said at the time. “That annoys me. I’ve just not been very good at relationships. I’m just not very good at them so I just need to work on myself before I put myself on to somebody else.”
Payne added, “I feel like 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.”
One Direction may have hit pause on their music together, but band members Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik have continued to hit play when it comes to romance. Malik’s relationship with fellow English singer Perrie Edwards was a fan-favorite as the couple started dating in 2011 and got engaged […]
October 2021
The breakup was short-lived as Payne and Henry reconciled several months later, before making their red carpet debut at the BFI London Film Festival in October.
May 2022
By May 2022, they split again after rumors surfaced that Payne cheated on Henry. Payne’s rep, however, told Us that he and Henry split “over a month ago.”
That same year, Payne started dating Kate Cassidy.
May 2024
Henry published her debut novel on May 14, about Mallory Hunt, a fan of boy band 5Forward, who eventually becomes a fashion model. Once Mallory becomes an It Girl, she meets and starts dating former 5Forward member Oliver Smith. In the book, Oliver forced Mallory to have an abortion after she got pregnant.
“Obviously the book is fiction, [but it’s] definitely inspired by true events,” Henry told People in an interview published on Wednesday, May 15. “[The main character] Mallory is very similar to me, and that’s why it was very easy for me to write her character and put the emotion in there. I’m just grateful that I have this opportunity and platform to really help be a voice for women.”
Payne never publicly addressed Henry’s book.
October 2024
Henry continued to detail her relationship with Payne in a series of scathing social media videos. In one early October clip, Henry claimed that Payne used to tell her that 1D alum Zayn Malik once threw him up against a wall. (Neither singer addressed the rumor. Us reached out for comment at the time.)
On October 14, the Daily Mail reported that Henry sent a cease-and-desist letter to Payne after he allegedly repeatedly tried to contact her. Us confirmed two days later that Payne died at age 31 when he fell off a hotel balcony in Argentina.