Maya Henry addresses ‘poisonous romance’ in her guide

Maya Henry has opened up about the ‘fictional elements’ to her book about a toxic relationship after accusing her ex-boyfriend Liam Payne of obsessive contact.

The Texan model, 23, spoke about her novel, Looking Forward, which she claimed is a fiction book based on true events from her own life.

On a new podcast, The Internet is Dead, Maya addressed how much of the book is fiction and claimed that fans didn’t think it was about her ex-boyfriend Liam, 31.

Noting some of the things she changed, Maya said: ‘Some of the things that are fictionalised in the book are obviously the name changes, some of the cities are different like I say I’m from Tennessee in the book when I’m from Texas.’

Maya then went on to discuss why fans didn’t think the book was about Liam, who is father to his son Bear, six, from his relationship with ex Cheryl. 

She said: ‘Then also for example another big point was that people were like this can’t be about Liam because when I was talking about the abortion he said “oh I’m not ready for a kid”, because he is already a father.’

Explaining why she slightly changed the events, Maya said: ‘And in real life that’s obviously not the case, but for privacy reasons I just wanted to leave stuff like that out of the book and just tell my story so that’s kind of why it is fiction.’

‘Because if you do something that’s nonfiction everything has to be fiction everything has to be so factual and you can’t leave anything out’

Revealing that some of the worse parts of her story were omitted from the story, she said: ‘There are a lot of things that are worse than that I did leave out. So it’s fiction inspired by true events.’

The podcast appears comes as she has started legal proceedings against her former flame.

She has instructed lawyers to issue a cease and desist letter to the One Direction star after accusing him of repeatedly contacting her.

The brunette beauty has also accused the singer of obsessively contacting her friends and family including her mother Azteca Henry.

Lawyers for the star 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.’

This is just the latest in their bitter feud and last week the model accused Liam of playing on the loyalty of die-hard One Direction fans to pillory her.

The singer’s stop-start three-year relationship with Maya came to an end in 2022, almost a year after the former couple called off their engagement.

The Strip That Down For Me singer has since moved on with new girlfriend Kate Cassidy, while Maya continues to promote her debut novel – an art-imitating-life romance about a girl who falls in love with a pop star. 

Sharing a brutal assessment of Liam, with TikTok followers last week, Maya – the daughter of multi-millionaire personal-injury lawyer Thomas J. Henry – claimed he has gone to extraordinary lengths in an attempt to contact her. 

‘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,’ she said. 

‘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?’ 

The couple made their first public appearance in 2019 and were subsequently forced to isolate together during the global pandemic, and Payne later insisted the experience had helped strengthen their relationship. 

Liam previously told People: ‘I think we went through a lot in COVID. I feel like we’ve come out the other side of it a bit stronger.

‘Most couples who have been married for years struggled, right? So, I mean, we’re still really happy to be here together today.’

But Henry poured scorn on any suggestion of closeness by claiming he was contacting her friends while they were still together – without her prior knowledge – and has maintained the habit since their separation. 

She added: ‘He’s the one that is constantly doing weird sh*t,  and also might I add, he literally said the reason he has all these people on his damn Snapchat, which he has had for years apparently, and messages, is he preys on One Direction fans because they’re loyal to him.’ 

The model also accused Liam’s fan-base – the singer commands 26.1 million followers on Instagram alone – of being blinded by their loyalty to the singer and their love for his former band, One Direction.

She said: ‘When you constantly enable someone they’re never gonna realise what they’ve done is bad, or they do realise 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.’ 

She added: ‘It’s hard when you have these people jumping down your throat for speaking the truth on things that have happened’.

Speaking in 2021, shortly after confirming their engagement was over, Payne admitted he was at fault during an interview with Stephen Bartlett’s Diary Of A CEO podcast. 

‘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 on to somebody else.’

He added: ‘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.’

MailOnline exclusively broke the news of their engagement in August 2020. 

The pair were first linked back in August 2018 shortly after Liam split from Girls Aloud star Cheryl Cole. 

The couple’s engagement followed rumours of a rift, but a source close to the lovebirds told MailOnline at the time that they were ‘definitely still a couple and are very happy together’.

The friend explained they were taking their romance off social media, adding: ‘Maya and Liam are definitely still a couple and are very happy together.

‘Both have been taking time off social media lately and enjoying each other’s company away from the spotlight.’

MailOnline has contacted a representative for further comment.