Liam Payne said “I'm going to die” as a manipulation tactic: ex-fiancée Maya Henry

Liam Payne's ex-fiancée revealed in an interview that aired just two days before the former One Direction singer's death that he bombarded her with scary messages saying he was “going to die” as a manipulation tactic.

Maya Henry said in an hour-long interview with “The Internet Is Dead” that Payne often “played with death” in messages to manipulate her into talking to him – or her bombastic novel based on her “toxic” Relationship based, not to publish” YouTube channel.

Henry, 23, said after their split in 2022 that Payne would exploit her and her family's empathy in a vicious cycle.

“Since we broke up, he's always been sending me messages like, 'Oh, I'm not feeling well' – playing with death and saying, 'Well, I'm going to die.' I’m not feeling well,” she said in the interview.

She said she tried to ask him for help but he didn't accept it.

When her fiction book, which she said was based on real events during their relationship, was set to be published in May, the calls escalated, Henry said.

“When I announced my book, he did the same thing. He called my mom (and said), 'I don't think I'm going to be here much longer,' and I'm not doing anything about it,” Henry said. “So if you say that, I'll try to help you no matter what you've done.”

“Even one of his friends called me and my mom and said, 'Oh, you know this just isn't a good time for him.' I don't think you should publish the book. He's not well and if something happens to him, you won't just blame yourself, but the whole world will blame you,” Henry added.

Her book “Looking Forward” was published on May 14th. It features a frightening episode where the character based on Payne chased the protagonist based on herself with an ax in a drug-fueled episode.

The book also includes details based on her own abortion – which, according to Henry, she would not have gone through “if it were up to me”, and alludes to Payne giving her an ultimatum similar to the character in the book, losing it or having an abortion abortion in an interview after its publication.

Although Henry said Payne's news of the death was manipulative and “took advantage of my family's kindness,” she still worried about him and tried to get him help and rehab.

“I know the lifestyle he lives and there comes a day when something bad is going to happen, so I would always say, 'Okay, he's saying these things, I have to help him because if I don't, I will.' I will never be there.' I can live with myself if something happens to him because…he's a father. He has a family,” she said.

Payne, 31, died Wednesday after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Henry recently filed a cease-and-desist letter against the singer, saying in her YouTube interview that his constant contact had “gotten a lot worse.” She said she couldn't say more for legal reasons.

“Since we broke up he keeps sending me messages, he'll blow up my phone, not just from his phone, it's always from different phone numbers so I never know where it's coming from,” Henry said in a TikTok video.

“He’ll create new iCloud accounts to message me – it’s always a new damn iCloud account. Every time I see one on my phone I think, 'Here we go again.'”

The model and author began dating the singer in August 2019 and just a few months later, in November, they got engaged, she said.

After they got engaged, Payne “started to become abusive” while under the influence, she said.

The singer said on Stephen Bartlett's Diary Of A CEO podcast in 2021 that he didn't like the version of himself in their relationship and that he was “disappointed in myself for continuing to hurt people.”

“I just stopped giving a very good version of myself that I didn’t appreciate and that I didn’t like,” Payne said. “I can honestly say (the relationship) makes me feel better.”

The star opened up about his struggles with substance abuse and went to rehab.

He reportedly behaved “erratically” in the lobby of the CasaSur Palermo Hotel before falling from the balcony of his third-floor hotel room around 5 p.m. He reportedly smashed his laptop in the lobby and had to be carried to his room.