Maya Henry has bravely returned to social media, one week after ex-fiancé Liam Payne’s funeral.
The pop star from One Direction was buried recently in a heartfelt ceremony after passing away at 31 last month due to a fall from a hotel’s third-floor balcony in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.
Following Liam’s death, Maya, 23, became the target of online trolls who have been unfairly saying she it to blame for the death of the singer.
The Texan model has now returned to Instagram to celebrate Thanksgiving with her nearest and dearest.
Accompanied by various heartwarming photos from her day, Maya shared with her followers what she was thankful for, expressing: ‘Happy Thanksgiving. Grateful for my family, friends, and God.’
Maya’s most recent Instagram update was posted on October 15, just a day before Liam’s accident on the hotel balcony. Since then, the social media influencer has been on an extended hiatus.
Maya Henry has bravely returned to social media, one week after ex-fiancé Liam Payne’s funeral
The One Direction star was laid to rest last week in a moving ceremony after his death last month, following a fall from the third-floor balcony of a hotel in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires
At the time of his death, a source close to Maya told DailyMail.com: ‘Right now she is obviously in shock.’
The model only found out when a member of her team was contacted by a reporter.
Liam made his first public appearance with Maya in 2019 before their stop-start three-year relationship came to an end in 2022, almost a year after the former couple called off their engagement.
The Strip That Down For Me singer then moved on with girlfriend Kate Cassidy, while Maya promoted her debut novel, Looking Forward – an art-imitating-life romance about a girl who falls in love with a pop star.
Maya has been defended by fans who have rushed to share messages of support in the comments section of her post.
Her supporters have jumped to her defence over vile comments which have been posted online about her involvement in Liam’s death.
Underneath her most recent Instagram picture, trolls posted sickening comments asking Maya if ‘she was happy’ and telling her the death was ‘her fault’.
After noticing the comments on her page, many shared their own more positive remarks, reminding Maya that the tragic events were not her fault.
The Texan model has now returned to Instagram to celebrate Thanksgiving with her nearest and dearest
Liam made his first public appearance with Maya in 2019 before their stop-start three-year relationship came to an end in 2022, almost a year after the former couple called off their engagement
They read: ‘For everyone in the comments attacking Maya, Liam’s death isn’t her fault. She’s allowed to share the truth about their relationship and how he treated her. Victims are allowed to tell their stories.
‘There is no way that anyone could’ve seen Liam’s death coming. So y’all need to stop attacking her and leave her alone. It’s not her fault.’
Others read: ‘Girl please take a break from social media if you need or mute the comments. You’ve done nothing wrong. Take your time to heal’; ‘Just want you to know you are so loved and cared for we all stand with you Maya’; Turn your comments off’; ‘It’s not your fault’;
‘Leave this woman alone. Y’all don’t know what happened. Go pot condolences on his page, but why attack her? Grow up! Be respectful’; It’s not your fault, please don’t blame yourself’;
‘People blaming her for Liam’s death is so stupid. Victims are allowed to tell their stories, she couldn’t have foreseen this death happening. You all need to grow up’;
Just days before his death Maya 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 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.’
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.’
At the time of his death, a source close to Maya told DailyMail.com: ‘Right now she is obviously in shock’
Maya, who is said to be ‘in shock’ over Liam’s death, has been defended by fans who have rushed to share messages of support in the comments section of her post
‘Also, he will email me… not only me, but he’ll blow up my mom’s phone. Is this normal behavior to you?
The model also accused Liam of playing on the loyalty of die-hard One Direction fans across social media to pillory her.
Maya recently opened up about the ‘fictional elements’ to her book, which she claimed is a fiction novel 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.
Noting some of the things she changed, Maya said: ‘Some of the things that are fictionalized 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 Payne, who is father to his son Bear, six, from his relationship with ex Cheryl Cole.
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.
His girlfriend Kate Cassidy posted a picture of the pair on her Instagram last August
‘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 worst 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.’
Liam was laid to rest last week in a moving ceremony after his death last month.
Harry Styles, 30, Niall Horan, 31, Zayn Malik , 31, and Louis Tomlinson , 32, were all present in what was believed to be their first public meeting as a group since their last concert in 2015. Payne’s girlfriend Kate Cassidy , 25, was also in attendance.
A church source said a choir and musicians performed at the service. One of the floral displays shows bowling pins and a ball – a nod to his love of bowling, which Kate said he did four times a week.
The funeral’s location was a closely guarded secret, and local residents only realising it was taking place when ‘no parking’ signs were erected around the church.
Two traffic enforcement officers patrolled the area handing out tickets to any drivers ignoring the signs.
Liam travelled to Argentina in September where he watched former bandmate Niall Horan perform and also saw his close friend Rogelio ‘Roger’ Nores. He had extended his stay to renew his visa to live in the US when the tragedy occurred.
The entrance of the church which is hosting the service has been decorated with candle lanterns and white roses that have been arranged in surrounding shrubbery.
Liam was laid to rest last week in a moving ceremony after his death last month
Liam shot to fame in 2010 on XFactor with former bandmates Niall Horan , Zayn Malik, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, despite initially auditioning separately
One source told The Sun: ‘His family have gone to great lengths to put together the perfect service and give him the send off he deserves.
‘Liam may have been a global superstar but to Geoff and Karen he will always be their little boy. It is going to be an incredibly difficult day.’
In a joint statement released following Payne’s death, Louis, Zayn, Niall and Harry said they were ‘completely devastated.’
‘In time, and when everyone is able to, there will be more to say,’ they said.
‘But for now, we will take some time to grieve and process the loss of our brother, who we loved dearly.
‘The memories we shared with him will be treasured forever. For now, our thoughts are with his family, his friends, and the fans who loved him alongside us.
‘We will miss him terribly. We love you Liam – Louis, Zayn, Niall and Harry.’
Louis, Harry and Zayn all later released separate tributes.
Styles wrote on Instagram that he was ‘truly devastated’ and will ‘miss him always’.
‘His greatest joy was making other people happy and it was an honour to be alongside him as he did it.
