Liam Payne’s Ex Maya Henry Says She Once Felt Pressured Into Abortion

Maya Henry is opening up about a difficult time. 

Two years after her breakup from ex-fiancé Liam Payne, the former model shared that she once felt pressured into having an abortion by a former partner.

“If it were up to me, I wouldn’t have done it,” Henry told People in an interview published May 15. “But then also, if I were to have made a different decision, then I would’ve lost the person that I loved.”

Recalling that she and her unnamed ex had “difficult conversations” about the ultimatum, the 23-year-old added, “But looking back now, things happen for a reason.”

Henry’s candid confession comes ahead of the release of her new novel, Looking Forward, which she insisted is fiction but “inspired by true events” that happened in her personal life.

In the book, which tells the fictional story of a model’s tumultuous relationship with a British pop star, the main character Mallory finds out she’s pregnant but decides not to keep the baby after her boyfriend, Oliver, says he’ll walk away from the relationship if she does. Eventually, her abortion results in medical complications that cause her to bring herself to the hospital to treat hemorrhaging.