Liam Payne's Ex-Fiancée Breaks Silence After Tragic One Direction Star’s Balcony Death — Days After Tackling 'Toxic' Romance in Book and Launching Legal Action Against Singer
Liam Payne's ex-fiancée Maya Henry reacted to the devastating news of his death just hours after the One Direction star's body was found on the balcony of a hotel in Buenos Aires.
RadarOnline.com can reveal his former flame is still digesting the news, which came after the 23-year-old model recently detailed their "toxic" romance and began legal proceedings against him — just one week before his death.
A source close to Henry said: "Right now she is obviously in shock."
Payne and Henry had been in an on-and-off relationship for roughly three years from 2019-2022.
The former couple got engaged in 2020, and Payne announced their first split in June 2021 — which he took the blame for at the time.
In October, the two revealed they were back together before permanently calling it quits in 2022.
Earlier this year, Henry blamed the majority of their issues on their eight-year age gap.
She told People: "I definitely chose to forgive a lot of things. When you love someone so much, you have those rose-colored glasses. You’re in denial, so you think those things will stop, and they don’t, and that just becomes an issue among other issues."
While their relationship ended two years ago, Henry took legal action against the singer just one week before his death.
The model issued a cease-and-desist order to the former One Direction member after alleging he repeatedly contacted her.
Lawyers told MailOnline: "Maya Henry issued a cease and desist last week to Liam Payne following the emergence of new and concerning information.
"She has retained attorneys Marco Crawford and Daniel Cerna to represent her. At this time, that is her only comment on the matter."
Henry — the daughter of multi-millionaire personal injury lawyer Thomas J. Henry — uploaded a TikTok video last week claiming Payne had gone to great lengths to contact her.
She claimed in the video: "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."
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"Also, he will email me... not only me, but he'll blow up my mom's phone. Is this normal behavior to you?"
Henry also claimed Payne "preyed on his One Direction fan base" and that fans were "blinded by their loyalty to him."
She continued: "When you constantly enable someone, they're never gonna realize what they've done is bad, or they do realize, and they know they can get away with it, which is what has happened with him for so many years."
"Everything gets swept under the rug, everything gets hidden for him. I don't know who the hell's behind all of this but nothing ever comes out about him."
The model is also candid in her new fictional book, Looking Forward, which links to Payne and is based on true events from her life.
Henry said she had to use fictionalized names and change certain details for privacy reasons but noted how some of the "worse things" were omitted from the final publishing.
She said on The Internet is Dead podcast: "There are a lot of things that are worse than that I did leave out. So it's fiction inspired by true events."
Payne was found dead on the third-story balcony of the CasaSur hotel in Buenos Aires on Wednesday. He was pronounced dead at the scene with a cranial fracture.
The singer was reported to have been acting "erratic" in the lobby before his death and had to be carried to his room.
An unveiled 911 call made to local police shortly before his death showed the hotel owner worrying Payne's life was "at risk" after noting he was "breaking things in his room" under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
Chilling photos of the singer's room showed a broken television, a glass of champagne, burnt aluminum foil, charred matches, and white powder.
The former boy band member's girlfriend, Kate Cassidy, left the city just two days prior to his death.
Payne shares his 7-year-old son Bear with his ex Cheryl Cole.
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