
Maya Henry, the ex-fiancée of late One Direction star Liam Payne, has addressed rumours that she is planning a tell-all documentary about their time together.
The American model, 24, was in a relationship with the singer for four years before he called off their two-year engagement in 2022.
Payne died last year, aged 31, after a fatal fall from his hotel room balcony while on holiday in Argentina.
Since then, Henry has been candid about her off-again, on-again relationship with Payne, alleging earlier this year that the star used heroin and would ‘sext’ his fans.
The model and novelist – who wrote a fictional book believed to be based on her real-life relationship with the pop star – previously accused Payne of ‘obsessively’ messaging her on social media after their breakup. He never addressed her claims publicly.
Henry has now denied rumours that she is working on a documentary about their relationship, describing such reports as ‘fake news.’
This came as The Sun reported that Henry is working with HBO and an independent production company to bring the documentary to life.
In turn, this led to concerns as to how it will affect Payne’s grieving family, which includes sisters Ruth and Nicola, his parents, and his eight-year-old son Bear, whom he shared with pop star Cheryl.
A source previously told the tabloid: ‘This documentary is going to be hugely upsetting for Liam’s family, who are struggling with unimaginable loss.
‘There is also concern within the industry that it is going to be one-sided.
‘Of course, Liam is not here to give his side of the story or his version of events. It all just feels terribly sad.’
However, Henry has described any such plans for a documentary as a ‘false narrative,’ shutting down rumours in a post to her Instagram Stories.
Henry wrote: ‘I’m receiving a huge amount of messages about completely false stories being circulated today.
‘To be clear. I am NOT doing a documentary, despite the offers I’ve received. I am NOT doing any interviews, or features about my situation or my past.
‘Fake news. I am not participating. I’m in a healthy place in the present. The past is the past.
‘The last thing I want to do is revisit trauma for public consumption. I am tired of the fake news and all these false narratives.’
It was also reported that the documentary would touch on the abuse Henry received from One Direction fans while they were together.
An insider told The Sun: ‘The social media comments were vicious, and Maya wants to open up about what she went through and the dark side of dating a world-famous pop star.
‘It wasn’t just the strain of the relationship itself. She also faced relentless trolling from the band’s fanbase, receiving hateful messages almost daily, which made moving on even harder.
‘She hopes the documentary will finally give her the chance to share her experiences and tell her side of the story.’
In February, Henry told Rolling Stone how their relationship had come under strain due to his alleged drug use.
‘Initially, it was the drug use and addictions that tore us apart. Anyone who has been with an addict understands how difficult that is,’ she said.
‘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.’
Sources for Rolling Stone shared: ‘It was normal for Liam to do cocaine, ketamine, MDMA, and pharmaceutical pills (Xanax and pain pills). Then he got into smoking heroin.’
Payne previously spoke of their separation on Stephen Bartlett’s Diary Of A CEO podcast in 2021.
‘I feel like more than anything at this point, I’m more disappointed in myself that I keep on hurting people,’ he said.
‘That annoys me. I’ve just not been very good at relationships. And 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 onto somebody else.’
He continued: ‘That’s where I got to in my last relationship. I just wasn’t giving a very good version of me anymore, that I didn’t appreciate, and I didn’t like being. I can honestly say I feel better out of it.
‘I didn’t feel good doing what I did, but it had to happen. Just a corny way to say it was the best for us both.’
The pair reconciled months later, before splitting for good in April 2022.
Henry was believed to be in the process of taking legal action against Payne when he died, issuing a cease and desist order amid accusations that he had been ceaselessly contacting her, using different iCloud accounts to continue to reach out.
Speaking out on TikTok in the days prior to his death, Henry said: ‘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.
‘He’ll create new iCloud accounts to message me – it’s always a new damn 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 this normal behaviour to you?’
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Lawyers for Henry told Metro: ‘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.’
In the wake of his death, representatives for Henry told The Daily Mail that the model ‘is understandably in shock.’
Five people have been charged over Payne’s death after he fell from a third-floor balcony of the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
His funeral was held last November in Buckinghamshire and was attended by fellow One Direction stars Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, and Louis Tomlinson, along with his family and friends.
Last month, Payne’s sister Ruth Gibbons shared details of a ‘recurring nightmare’ in which she found herself unable to save him from his tragic fate.
‘Your death will never make sense, no matter how much I study it, whatever angle I look at it, it never makes sense. You shouldn’t have died,’ she wrote in an emotional post on Instagram.
‘I have a recurring nightmare where I am in your hotel room just before it happened and you can’t hear me screaming for you, my brain is locked on your last minutes on this earth, the unaccounted minutes, the minutes I will never have the answers to, the minutes that changed everything.’
In the lengthy, emotional post, she described how she’d ‘underestimated grief’ and had taken having him around ‘for granted.’
‘Wherever you are, I hope you can hear me, I hope you are guiding me and I hope you know the love I have for you is infinite,’ she signed off.
Ahead of the tragic anniversary of Payne’s passing, One Direction bandmate Tomlinson spoke about his profound grief in an interview with The Independent.
‘You know, there’s still a level in my head [where it feels] unjust and frustrating that he’s not with us anymore. So, it just brought up those feelings, although I’m still living with them anyway,’ he said.
Admitting that he would ‘never really accept’ Payne’s death, he added: ‘It was really, really, impossibly difficult for me to deal with losing Liam.’
Metro has reached out to Maya Henry’s representatives for comment.
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