Photo: Instagram
They'd been together since 2018.
By Amy Lamare — Written on Jun 07, 2021
After nearly three years together and a 10-month engagement, Liam Payne and Maya Henry have called it quits.
Although the couple was first linked romantically in August of 2018, Liam Payne finally went public with their relationship nearly a year later in 2019, then announced he'd popped the question in August 2020.
Now, in an interview with Steven Bartlett on his "The Diary of a CEO" podcast, Payne says he ended things with the model and they won't be getting married.
Who is Maya Henry, Liam Payne's ex and now former fiancé?
Maya Henry is a soon-to-be 21-year-old model (her birthday is June 15, 2000) from Texas. She's also a college student and intends to be a human rights lawyer following her modeling career.
Her father, Thomas Henry, is one of Texas' top personal injury attorneys and her San Antonio-based family is prominent in Texas society.
She's nearly 17 years younger than Payne's last serious girlfriend, Cheryl Cole, with whom he has a son named Bear.
How did Liam Payne and Maya Henry meet?
Maya's brother, Thomas, who's also a model, reportedly introduced the two — but that wasn't the first time Maya and Liam met.
Maya is a One Direction fan, and they first met when she was just 15. Payne, now 27, was 21 and still a member of the boy band at the time. By the time they announced they were dating, Maya was 18 and Payne was 24.
In an interview she said, "We talked about how I play tennis. On stage he looked at me and did a tennis serve on stage (his technique needed a little work but the intention was good). I met him again two times after that in Buffalo and Dallas and he remembered I played tennis and served at me again on stage."
How did Maya Henry become famous?
Maya became a big topic of conversation online after her family threw her a multi-million dollar 15th birthday party — a Quinceañera celebration held for 600 guests in a 55,000-square foot venue built in San Antonio specifically for Maya's birthday party.
The venue was decorated with fountains, walls of roses, fake peacocks, cherry blossoms and butterflies suspended from the ceiling.
Maya wore two designer outfits by Rolando Santan that were made especially for her. Her makeup was done by Kardashian fave Partick Ta, and it took 150 event planners to pull off the party. Nick Jonas and Pitbull performed. The entire party cost her parents $6 million.
Wow.
The fame her birthday party brought her and her family turned into a YouTube reality TV show called "Hangin' With Los Henrys."
The show premiered in 2017 on YouTube and featured Maya's parents, grandmother and brother.
The description of the series reads: "Meet Los Henrys, a blended Mexican-American family from San Antonio. They travel, they spend, and they really know how to party. But at the end of the day, they are just your regular multi-millionaire family living in South Texas."
Unfortunately, there are no longer any videos on their YouTube channel.
Maya has a successful modeling career.
She's modeled for Vogue Ukraine, Glamour, L'Officiel Latvia, Vogue Arabia, Vogue Beauty UA and Elle Romania as well as numerous fashion and beauty shoots.
She's repped by Elite Model Mangement and walked her first couture fashion show during Paris Fashion Week in July 2019, and she's walked the runway for Dolce & Gabanna five times so far.
She was featured in the video for Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus' song "Old Town Road," and also had a role in the short film, "Carte Blanche," alongside Dylan Sprouse.
In 2008, when Maya was 7 years old, she founded her own charity.
Maya's Corner collects school supplies for students in Texas. The description on her non-profit's Facebook page states, "Founded in 2008 by Maya Henry, Maya's Corner is committed to improving the lives of young people by providing for causes including education, hunger, and poverty."
In 2017, she also raised $100,000 for the Tree Media Foundation.
She wrote about it on Instagram, saying: "[Tree Media] is a non-profit organization that supports education and programs in environmental sustainability.
What has Liam Payne said about his relationship with Maya Henry?
As a former member of one of the most popular boy bands in recent memory, Liam is no stranger to female attention.
He told MTV News that dating has been hard for him since he lives such a public life, and remarked that Maya doesn't seem fazed by the "frenzy" in his life.
“I don’t have anything to hide, so I’m really happy right now and things are good. Now that I’ve found someone who’s genuinely my best friend — as well as my partner — it’s massively changed things for me," he said. "She’s just so relaxed about everything and someone who’s completely got your back with everything is just the wildest thing. I don’t think I’ve ever really experienced that before in someone, so that’s quite a wonder to watch actually.
A lot of things in my life have happened very quickly, and I’ve not had the sense of stability with somebody in the way that I have it with [Maya]," he continued. "She keeps me calm and grounded about a lot of stuff that I am usually not so at ease about. There is never a lack of trust. it’s about having someone you can hang with, where you’re never pressured to fill the silence. Everything outside and around me is so high intensity right now. She brings the calm.”
Hopefully Liam finds calm on his own now in his new sobriety, and Maya, too.
Why did Liam Payne and Maya Henry break up?
"I feel like more than anything at this point, I'm more disappointed in myself that I keep on hurting people," the former One Direction singer admitted, noting that he hasn't been very good at relationships.
Payne also announced that he's one month sober, which may have quite a bit to do with his decision to end things. He says he needs to work on himself before he can "put myself onto somebody else."
"I didn't feel good for doing what I did, but it had to happen," he said. "I know that's the corniest way of saying it was best for best for both of us. Whatever. Cool story, bro. But it just feels like that."
Payne admitted that he was the problem in the relationship and had nothing but love for his now ex, saying, "I hope she's happy."
Amy Lamare is a Los Angeles based writer and editor covering entertainment, pop culture, beauty, fashion, fitness, technology, and the intersection of technology, business, and philanthropy. You can find her on Instagram and Facebook.