Liam Payne’s ex-fiancée revealed in an interview that aired just two days before the former One Direction singer’s death that he would bombard her with messages eerily saying he was “going to die” as a manipulation tactic.
Maya Henry said Payne often “played with death” in messages meant to manipulate her to talk to him — or not release her bombshell fiction book that was based on their “toxic” relationship — in an hour-long interview with “The Internet Is Dead” YouTube channel.
Henry, 23, said after their break-up in 2021, Payne would prey on her and her family’s empathy in a vicious “cycle.”
“He would always message me, ever since we broke up, like ‘Oh, I’m not well’ — he would play with death be like, ‘Well, I’m going to die. I’m not doing well,” she said in the interview.
She said she tried to get him help but he didn’t take it.
When her fiction book, which she said is based on real events that happened during their relationship, was about to be published in May, the calls escalated, Henry said.
“When I announced my book, he did the same thing. He called my mom [and said] ‘I think I’m not going to be around much longer’ and I don’t play with that,” Henry said. “So if you say this, I’m going to try to help you no matter what you’ve done.”
“Even one of his friends was calling me and my mom being like, ‘Oh, you know this just isn’t a good time for him. I don’t think you should put the book out. He’s not doing well and if something happens to him, not only are you going to blame yourself but the whole world’s gonna blame you,’” Henry added.
Her book “Looking Forward” was published on May 14. It includes a terrifying instance in which the character based on Payne chased the protagonist, based on herself, with an axe in a drug-fueled episode.
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The book also features details based on her own abortion — which Henry said she wouldn’t have gone through “if it was up to me,” alluding that Payne gave her an ultimatum similar to the character in the book to lose him or have an abortion in an interview following its release.
Even though Henry said Payne’s messages about death were manipulative and “took advantage of my family’s kindness,” she still worried about him and tried to get him help and rehab.
“I know the lifestyle he lives and there is a day where something bad is going to happen, so I would always be like ‘Okay, he’s saying these things, I have to help him because if I don’t, I will never be able to live with myself if something does happen to him because … he’s a father. He has a family,” she said.
Payne, 31, died Wednesday after plunging from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Henry had recently filed a cease and desist letter against the singer and in her YouTube interview said his constant contact has “just gotten so much worse.” She said she couldn’t say more because of legal reasons.
“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,” Henry said in a TikTok video.
“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–kng go again.’”
The model and author began dating the singer in August 2019 and they got engaged just a few months later, in November, she said.
After they got engaged, Payne “started to get abusive,” when he was under the influence, she said.
The singer said he didn’t like the version of himself in their relationship and that he was “disappointed in myself that I keep on hurting people,” on Stephen Bartlett’s Diary Of A CEO podcast in 2021.
“I just wasn’t giving a very good version of me anymore, that I didn’t appreciate and I didn’t like being,” Payne said. “I can honestly say I feel better out of [the relationship].”
The star was open about his struggles with substance abuse and attended rehab.
He was reportedly “acting erratic” in the lobby of the CasaSur Palermo Hotel before he fell from the balcony of his third-floor hotel room at around 5 p.m. He allegedly smashed his laptop in the lobby and had to be carried to his room.