Liam Payne Confirms Split From Maya Henry: ‘I Wasn’t Giving A Good Version Of Me’
It’s over, you guys. Yep, one year after they announced that they were engaged, Liam Payne and Maya Henry have
Lillie Gissen
It’s over, you guys. Yep, one year after they announced that they were engaged, Liam Payne and Maya Henry have split. The One Direction member confirmed the heartbreaking news during a recent interview, and he admitted that he was the one to break it off, since he “wasn’t giving a good version” of himself anymore.
“I’m disappointed in myself that I keep hurting people. That annoys me. I’ve just not been very good at relationships,” he admitted. “I know what my pattern of things is with relationships at this point. I’m just not very good at them so I just need to work on myself before I put myself on to someone else. That’s what happened with my relationship [with Henry]. I just wasn’t giving a very good version of me anymore. I feel better out of it. I didn’t feel good doing what I did but it had to happen.”
The singer added that it was the “best for both of them” and that he “hopes she is happy.”
A Brief Recap of Liam Payne And Maya Henry’s Relationship
For those who don’t know, Henry actually met Payne all the way back in 2015 at a 1D meet and greet as a fan! But it wasn’t until August 2018 (right after his split from Cheryl Cole) when they reconnected that feelings started to develop. At the time, they were photographed hanging out in Italy together, but when the “Strip That Down” crooner was spotted packing on the PDA with model Cairo Dwek a few weeks later, everyone assumed things had ended.
But things didn’t end there! Then, one year later — in August 2019 — they were caught holding hands while leaving a nightclub in London, confirming that they were back on. At the time, a source told The Sun, “Liam and Maya have been together for several months now. He is besotted and they get on very well. He wanted to wait before they started going public. He is close to Cheryl and, out of respect to her, only wanted to go public with a girlfriend when he knew it was right.”
They went Instagram official one month later, when Payne shared a super cute pic of him and the model, which he captioned, “Sometimes I don’t recognize this happy guy… Sure glad you brought him back though. All smiles over here.”
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Plus, during an interview with KISS FM UKthat same month, the musician finally spoke out about their relationship. When he was asked if he was dating anyone at the moment, he replied, “I am yeah, I am. I am very lucky. She is really great. I’m very happy right now.”
He continued, “It’s kind of got to the point with my life, where I’m like, screw this. It’s not worth my happiness. 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. 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. I’ve managed to explore a lot more of London than I ever have actually my life, which has been quite fun. My life has been quite normal recently, which has been a break.”
“We’re fairly happy at the moment,” he also told Capital FM. “I’m just past the point of where I’m bothered or not. It’s not worth my happiness; I’d just rather go out and do what I want. I’ve got nothing to hide.”
Over the next few months, they were as cute as could be together. They constantly shared adorable pics together, attended events side by side and were photographed packing on the PDA all over the world. And when the holidays rolled around in November 2019, Payne flew all the way across the world to meet Henry’s family. They spent Thanksgiving in her home state of Texas, and it appeared that they had an amazing time together.
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Then, Liam Payne Popped The Question
In August 2020, rumors started to swirl that the model and the pop star were engaged, after she was photographed wearing what appeared to be a diamond ring on that finger. His rep confirmed that exciting news to Us Weekly, and naturally, fans were pretty excited for them!
In December 2020, Payne shared some pics that he took of the 19-year-old to his Instagram, and boy, were they beautiful.
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It definitely seemed like things were going great between them, but he admitted during an interview with People Magazine that it wasn’t as perfect as it looked online.
“It’s been a blessing, but we’ve had our ups and our downs,” he explained. “This has been a very strange year and we were really living on top of each other at one point. It’s a full-time job and sometimes it’s really draining, but she’s very understanding and we’re getting on really really well and having a great time.”
He’s Been Leaning On His Former Bandmates After The Breakup
During a recent Instagram Live, Payne admitted that he was struggling lately, and that his former bandmate Harry Styles had reached out to him to make sure he was OK.
“I speak to Harry […] he has a sixth sense for if i’m struggling or if one of us is in trouble. I spoke to him and it was a really lovely catch up. I have a lot of love for the man, he’s really really great,” he said.
He also explained on the “The Diary of A CEO” podcast that he’s been leaning on Louis Tomlinson too! He revealed, “Louis and I speak to a lot. We’ve always had a really really close connection. The funny thing for us, we hated each other at the start. But it’s always those people that you grow closest to, you know?”
Knowing that they’re still close more than five years after the band went on a hiatus is definitely making our hearts burst.
Liam Payne’s Been Linked To Other Famous Faces
Before he dated Henry, the 27-year-old was in a relationship with Naomi Campbell. Speculation that they were a couple first started to swirl in January 2019 when they were caught having a super flirty exchange on Instagram. In the weeks that followed, they were spotted on vacation together, having a romantic date night in London and working out side by side. Payne even reportedly flew all the way to New York so that they could spend Valentine’s Day together — how cute?!
But in April 2019, news hit the web that they had broken up. A source told The Sun at the time, “Naomi has taken the decision to let things fizzle out. She’s just not into Liam any more and has cast him aside. Quite simply she got a bit bored. He was always the more keen, slightly needy one and, as far as she was concerned, they were never officially an item anyway. It’s always been very casual.”
Before that, he dated Cole for more than two years, and they were total couple goals. They first got together in February 2016, and get this — they even welcomed a son together, named Bear, in March 2017. Everything seemed picture perfect between them, but in June 2018, the 1D heartthrob shocked the world when he announced that they had gone their separate ways.
“Cheryl and I are sad to announce that we are going our separate ways,” he said in a Twitter statement. “It’s been a tough decision for us to make. We still have so much love for each other as a family. Bear is our world and we ask that you respect his privacy as we navigate our way through this together.”
Cheryl and I are sad to announce that we are going our separate ways. It’s been a tough decision for us to make. We still have so much love for each other as a family. Bear is our world and we ask that you respect his privacy as we navigate our way through this together.
— Liam (@LiamPayne) July 1, 2018
Cole later opened up about what went wrong, and she admitted that it felt like Payne was struggling to balance being a dad and working.
“He wanted to settle down and have a family and not do the solo thing,” she explained. “Then we encouraged him to do that. And then it didn’t work out. He was almost having two lives. You have to switch your head onto pop star and then switch it back to daddy.”
He has also had relationships with Sophia Smith and Danielle Peazer.