Liam Payne has died, and the internet has chosen to blame his ex-girlfriend.
Payne, one of five founding members of the popular British boy band One Direction, died on Oct. 16 following a three-story fall from his hotel room balcony in Argentina. In the wake of this tragedy, an outpouring of support for the singer and his family has erupted from fans across the world, many of whom are upset and confused.
Just days earlier, Payne had been happily posting about his trip to Argentina on his social media pages. A video taken on Sept. 30 shows Payne happily chatting with fans outside the Palacio Duhau hotel, taking pictures and signing things. Another video from Oct. 1 shows him interacting with fans again, reportedly staying with them for over an hour. In one clip from that day, he gestures for a fan to hug him before telling her he loves her in Spanish.
Yet somehow, despite appearing so happy and lively just days before, Payne is gone. For many fans of the singer, the tragedy has been hard to process.
“Like why am I crying harder than I did for my grandparents,” one person commented under a TikTok of a young woman crying to the One Direction song “Moments.” Another commenter under the same video said, “I am physically hurting. How is it possible to grieve someone this much [that] you didn’t know??” One fan even went as far as to comment, “Now it’s been a little over 3 days of crying non-stop and the pain is only getting worse. How do we move on from this? Because is my current state, I can’t see myself ever moving on, not now or ever.”
The upset and confusion over Payne’s death has resulted in some beautiful moments of community amongst the singer’s fan base. In Toronto, a memorial was held in High Park in Hillside Gardens on Oct. 20 where hundreds of fans gathered to mourn Payne before participating in a moment of silence. In England, a crowd gathered in Hyde Park in London where they laid down flowers, photos and handwritten letters. These are not the only examples of such memorials.
Yet, the feelings of grief being experienced and expressed by fans all around the world have also resulted in some not-so-beautiful things.
Maya Henry, a former girlfriend of Payne’s, has found herself caught up in some of these unhelpful reactions.
It started when Henry released a novel titled Looking Forward in May that she says is “inspired by true events.” The book focuses on a young woman and the relationship she shares with a former boyband star named Oliver, who struggles with addiction and mental illness. While many fans immediately saw the similarities between the fictional main characters from Looking Forward and Henry and Payne, some supported Henry and others turned on her.
Yet this wasn’t the end of the hate for Henry. Just weeks before the singer’s death, she issued a cease and desist against Payne after she claimed that he would not stop contacting her.
In a TikTok posted on Oct. 6, Henry stated: “Ever since we broke up, he messages me… it’s always from different phone numbers too, so I never know where it’s gonna come from.” Henry also claimed that Payne would message her mom and her friends trying to get into contact with her too.
On a recent episode of the popular podcast Call Her Daddy, Henry said that she felt that Payne would use threats of suicide as a “manipulation tactic.”
“He would always message me ever since we broke up [saying], ‘oh, I’m not well.’” She went on to say that he would “play with death,” and tell her that he was going to die and that he was not doing well.
Instead of treating Henry as a victim of emotional abuse, many fans have gone as far as to blame Payne’s death on her speaking out.
Under her latest Instagram post, people have expressed their contempt. “Are you happy now?” one commenter asks. “IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT,” another suggests. While responses to the post have now been limited, some of these horrible comments have over 20,000 likes.
On TikTok, one fan stated: “Maya should have never published that book on Liam. If she knew he was already struggling mentally and internally, why make it even worse? I would just never do that.” Another video urged people not to buy the book, stating that Henry aimed to “silence Liam.”
There is no doubt that Payne’s death is a tragedy. Only 31, the singer left behind his family and his 7-year-old son. He had so much of his life yet to live and it is not unusual for people to grieve his loss.
It is simply a shame that many of his fans have chosen to put more hate into the world instead of celebrating the life of a young man who did not deserve to die.