Liam Payne’s journey to true love after heartache over Cheryl

Liam Payne has asked Maya Henry to marry him.

But the One Direction star faced a terrible heartbreak before finding true love with the beauty.

In July 2018 Liam and Girls Aloud’s Cheryl shocked fans when they revealed that they were ending their relationship.

Despite their 10-year age gap, the couple made things work when they got together in 2016, until their relationship began to crumble years later – after welcoming son Bear together.

At the time the pair kept quiet about why they ended their romance but in November last year Liam appeared to come clean about why he and Geordie Cheryl went their separate ways.

Liam – who was 23 when son Bear arrived – said one of the first problems arose when the pressure of fatherhood knocked him for six.

“Becoming a dad at such a young age, it’s such a difficult thing,” he says in his new documentary, Ant Middleton and Liam Payne: Straight Talking.

“And I think I built fatherhood up so much in my head that it kind of messed me up to start with. I started in a bad place with it,” he contiued.

“I think it spooked me out early on, and I was just worried I would not be enough to look after the both of them. They’re so important to me — Cheryl as well.”

The second issue, he says according to heat magazine, was that he didn’t “understand” what Cheryl, 36, was going through as a new mum.

“The one thing I was missing as a man in the relationship I had, was a level understanding about what she was feeling about stuff,” he admitted.

“I think I learnt through away being that, while I want to protect her, there’s a big part of her that wants to protect me.”

And even though he is moving ahead with his love life, Liam has always made it clear that Cheryl – who he co-parents with – is a large part of his life.

He previously gushed: “She’s one of the most, if not the most, important people in my life. I’m lucky I have someone who understands what I’m going through. “

Weeks after Cheryl and Liam split he was spotted with Texan model Maya.

The hitmaker has previously shared that meeting Maya helped him mend his heart.

He told MTV news in October last year: “Honestly with love, I think you don’t really understand it until it gives you that sting, it took a long time for me.”

He added: “Something really hurt me and it kind of made me appreciate love and people a lot more, for the longest time, living such an exposed life made dating really hard.

“I’ve found someone who’s genuinely my best friend, she’s just so relaxed about everything and someone who’s completely got your back with everything is just the wildest thing.”

News of the pair’s engagement was confirmed by Liam’s reps this morning.

For months, the lovebirds have kept their two-year long romance pretty low-key.

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