British singer Liam Payne has disclosed that he and US model Maya Henry have ended their engagement and that the couple separated during the lockdown, while also speaking about his struggle with “severe suicidal thoughts”.

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The couple’s relationship was said to have started in 2019 when they began attending public events together. In August 2020, they confirmed their relationship.

The former One Direction singer and now-solo musician acknowledged his single status on the Diary of a CEO podcast, adding he was “disappointed” in himself for “hurting people.”

He told businessman Steven Bartlett, the podcast’s host: “I feel like, more than anything at this point, I’m more disappointed in myself [that] I keep on hurting people. That annoys me.”

Payne said that the same thing had transpired in his last relationship and that he felt he “wasn’t giving a very good version of [himself] anymore”.

“I can honestly say I feel better out of it,” he said.

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“I didn’t feel good doing what I did but it had to happen. That’s just the corniest way of saying it ‘was the best for both of us’ – whatever, cool, nice story, bro.”

Payne also talked about how he struggled with “severe” suicidal ideation and addiction throughout his time in One Direction.

From 2010 to 2015, the British musician was a member of The X Factor boyband, which disbanded in 2015.

Payne admitted to host, Bartlett, that he struggled with mental health issues and addiction during the band’s heyday.

When asked if he’d ever experienced “moments of suicidal thoughts,” the artiste replied, “Yeah. There is some stuff that I’ve definitely never spoken about to do with it. It was really, really, really severe. It was a problem.”

Payne said that seeing images of himself in the newspaper prompted him to make a change in his alcohol and drug abuse.

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“’There were a few pictures of me on a boat and I was all bloated out and I call it my pills-and-booze face,” Payne described how his face had seemed “10 times bigger” in the past vs how it seemed now.

“In the band… the best way to secure us, because of how big we’d got, was just to lock us in our rooms. What’s in the room? A mini-bar. So at a certain point I thought, I’m just going to have a party-for-one and that seemed to carry on for many years of my life… It was wild but it was the only way you could get the frustration out.”

Payne went on to say that he’s “not very good on [his] own” and that he tends to jump in and out of romances, later in the conversation.

Between 2016 and 2019, Payne was in a relationship with former Girls Aloud singer Cheryl. Bear, their son, was born in March 2017.

Also Read | Songwriter Liam Payne engaged to Texan model Maya Henry

After forming the band One Direction with Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, and Louis Tomlinson on The X Factor, Payne had catapulted to stardom.

Many other celebrities like Lady Gaga, Meghan Markle have also recently come forward to talk about their struggles with mental health.