Liam Payne and Ex Maya Henry's Relationship Timeline

Liam Payne and ex-fiancée Maya Henry had an on-off relationship.

The One Direction alum was first linked to Henry in August 2018, shortly after he and his ex-girlfriend started dating Cheryl Cole has separated. A year later, Payne and Henry made their relationship Instagram official.

“If someone takes a photo, someone will do something. “The difference is that she's so relaxed that it helps me relax in a situation rather than being somewhere and talking about who's watching and what's going on,” Payne continued KISS FM UK in September 2019. “People will watch whatever. What should I do? There's nothing I can do about it now. It's too late for that. It was just really nice and we just go out.”

He added: “I've managed to explore a lot more of London than I ever have before in my life, which was really fun. “My life has been pretty normal lately, it's been a break.”

Related: Is Maya Henry's novel inspired by her relationship with Liam Payne? What she said

Dave Bennett/Getty Images; Karwai Tang/WireImage Liam Payne's ex-fiancée Maya Henry has stepped away from her real life to write her debut novel, Looking Forward. “Of course the book is fiction, but it is definitely inspired by true events.” Henry, 23, told People in an interview published on Wednesday, May 15, “(The main character) Mallory is (…) very similar.”

Payne proposed in August 2020, but they separated the following year. Payne and Henry later reconciled but split permanently in May 2022 after he was accused of cheating. (Payne denied the allegations at the time.)

When Henry published a novel inspired by the turbulent relationship in 2024, I'm looking forward toSome fans were convinced that she was inspired by Payne.

“Some of the things that fictionalized the book were obviously the name changes, some of the cities are different,” Henry said on the Internet Is Dead podcast in October 2024. “Some of the timelines are a little distorted.” People said, ” It can't be Liam's fault,' because when I talked about the abortion he said, 'Oh, I'm not ready for a child,' and in real life that's obviously not the case. For privacy reasons, I just wanted to leave things like that out of my book.”

Payne, who died weeks later aged 31, shared son Bear with ex Cole.

Keep scrolling to see Payne and Henry's relationship timeline again:

2018

Payne and Henry began dating when they were 26 and 18, respectively. He has never publicly addressed the age difference.

August 2020

Two years later, Us weekly confirmed that Payne had proposed.

June 2021

During an appearance on the Diary of a CEO podcast, Payne revealed that he is single.

“At this point, the main thing I feel is that I'm disappointed in myself for continuing to hurt people,” he said at the time. “That annoys me. I just wasn't very good at relationships. I’m just not very good at it, so I just need to work on myself before I commit to anyone else.”

Payne added: “I feel like I achieved exactly that in my last relationship. I just stopped giving a very good version of myself that I didn’t appreciate and that I didn’t like.”

Related: Dating Stories of One Direction Members

One Direction may have hit the pause button on their music together, but band members Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik have continued to hit the pause button when it comes to romance. Malik's relationship with fellow English singer Perrie Edwards was well liked by fans when the couple started dating and got engaged in 2011 (…)

October 2021

The split was short-lived as Payne and Henry reconciled a few months later before making their red carpet debut at the BFI London Film Festival in October.

May 2022

They split again in May 2022 after rumors emerged that Payne had cheated on Henry. However, Payne's representative shared it Us that he and Henry broke up “over a month ago.”

That same year, Payne began dating Kate Cassidy.

May 2024

On May 14, Henry published her debut novel about Mallory Hunt, a fan of the boy band 5Forward who eventually becomes a model. Once Mallory becomes an It girl, she meets and starts dating former 5Forward member Oliver Smith. In the book, Oliver forced Mallory to have an abortion after she became pregnant.

“Of course the book is fiction, but it is definitely inspired by true events,” Henry said People in an interview published on Wednesday, May 15. “(The main character) Mallory is a lot like me, and so it was very easy for me to write her character and bring the emotions into it. “I'm just grateful to have this opportunity and platform to really contribute, a voice to be for women.”

Payne has never publicly addressed Henry's book.

October 2024

Henry continued to detail her relationship with Payne in a series of scathing social media videos. In a clip in early October, Henry claimed that Payne always told her about the 1D alum Zayn Malik once threw him against a wall. (None of the singers responded to the rumor. Us I asked for a comment at the time.)

On October 14th the Daily Mail reported that Henry sent Payne a cease and desist letter after allegedly making repeated attempts to contact her. Us confirmed two days later that Payne died at age 31 after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina.