Maya Henry "tried to be there" for Liam Payne before his tragic death.
The 25-year-old influencer had an on/off relationship with One Direction star Liam - who died in October 2024 at the age of 31 after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires - from 2018 until 2022, and always thought she could "fix things" between them before he passed.
She told Rolling Stone: "This was someone I loved very much. Initially, it was the drug use and addictions that tore us apart. Anyone who has been with an addict understands how difficult that is. While I loved him deeply, he did things that hurt me in ways I’ll never fully understand, and he continued to hurt me years after we broke up. On drugs, he became someone unrecognizable — so different from his sober self. I kept hoping each incident would be a wake-up call for him to get help, but it never was.
"I tried to be there for him. I loved him so much that I convinced myself I could fix things.
"I put myself in situations that were unsafe and harmful, ignoring every red flag. I knew there were parts of himself he was struggling with — parts of his identity he wasn’t ready to fully face, even within our relationship.… In the end, it wasn’t just the betrayals or the addictions that broke us — it was the realization that I had spent years in something that was never what I thought it was. I don’t fault him for his struggles."
At the time of his death, Liam had been dating influencer Kate Cassidy for almost two years, and they had been in the Argentinian city to see his former bandmate Niall Horan in concert.
She left just hours before the tragedy, and his room was later found found littered with drug paraphernalia.
Maya - who was also briefly engaged to Liam prior to their split - claimed that she had "stood by" Liam throughout their time together, but ultimately had to walk away from the relationship to save herself.
She said: "I stood by him in his darkest moments, through the chaos, through the pain, through things that broke me in ways I can’t explain. And yet, when it was all over, I was left with nothing but emptiness. The love I gave, the sacrifices I made — they weren’t enough because they never could be. I wasn’t just heartbroken; I felt defrauded, as so many women in my position would. But what I do know is this: It wasn’t about me or anything I did.
"It was about struggles beyond my control. And in the end, I had to choose myself. I had to walk away, no matter how much it hurt, because staying in his world meant losing myself."
