A week of milestones! Liam Payne confirmed that he is engaged to Maya Henry.
“We’re just really happy,” the “Midnight” singer, 27, gushed during his appearance on Good Morning America on Thursday, September 3. “I mean, in the last week, I’ve just had a birthday, my son [Bear] has gone to school for the first time today, so it seems like a lot of firsts for me, really, actually, which is great.”
Payne’s rep confirmed to Us Weekly on Friday, August 28, that the One Direction alum proposed to Henry, 20, after two years of dating. The news came hours after the model was spotted wearing a diamond ring on her left hand after having dinner with Payne at Novikov Restaurant & Bar in London.
The former boy bander and Henry were first spotted together in August 2018, although they waited until September 2019 to make their romance Instagram official. At the time, he credited her with helping him get over a dark period, writing, “Sometimes I don’t recognise this happy guy… sure glad you brought him back though. … [Thank you] for always keeping the biggest smile on my face through all the stress and making me realise how perfect my life really is.”
Two days before taking to social media, Payne opened up about how he no longer allowed dating in the public eye to stress him out.
“The difference is with [Maya], she’s so relaxed that it helps me relax in a situation, rather than being somewhere and talk about who is watching and what’s going on,” he said on KISS FM UK’s Kiss Breakfast at the time. “People are going to watch whatever. What am I supposed to do? I can’t do anything about it now. It’s too late for that.”
The “Strip That Down” crooner, who shares 3-year-old Bear with ex-girlfriend Cheryl Cole, has kept busy in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. In July, he and his former bandmates Harry Styles, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson celebrated the 10th anniversary of One Direction’s formation with a commemorative video, EPs featuring rare songs and an interactive website for fans.
“It feels amazing to be doing 10 years of anything, really, especially to have the success level that we’ve had,” Payne said on GMA on Thursday. “I’m just really grateful the fans have stuck around, and we still, each of us, have a career, which I think has been the most amazing thing out of all of it. As far as reunions go, I don’t know too much, but I got wonderful, lovely birthday messages from everyone, which was really, really nice.”
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