Liam Payne, former member of the British boy band One Direction, died at the age of 31 on Thursday. The musician died after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After the news went public, Liam's ex-girlfriend Maya Henry issued a statement reacting to his death. Her representative told the Daily Mail that she is “obviously in shock". Maya had recently come forward with claims of abuse in her past relationship with Liam Payne. She allegedly sent him a cease-and-desist letter a few days before his death. Her legal team claimed that "new and concerning information" was the reason behind the action.
In a video shared on Tiktok earlier this month, Maya said that Liam has been showing signs of obsessive behaviour ever since they broke up. She claimed that Liam would contact her family and even make new iCloud accounts to reach her. She said, “Ever since we broke up, he messages me, will blow up my phone, not only from his phone number, it's always from different phone numbers too, so I never know where it's gonna come from.”
She added, “He'll create new iCloud accounts to iMessage me — it's always a damn new iCloud account. Every time I see one pop up on my phone I'm like, ‘Here we f—ing go again.' Also, [he] will email me … not only me, but he'll blow up my mom's phone. Is that normal behaviour to you?”
Maya had also accused Liam Payne of exploiting One Direction fans, pointing to his constant sponsored Snapchat postings. The model further said in a TikTok comment section that he spoke poorly of his bandmates behind their backs, while publicly supporting them and going to their concerts.
Maya Henry and Liam Payne started dating in 2018 after Liam's breakup with Cheryl Cole. The couple got engaged in 2020 but split up in 2022 after Maya accused Liam of cheating.
At the time of Liam Payne's death, the musician was reportedly dating US model and content creator Kate Cassidy.