Liam Payne's girlfriend Kate Cassidy breaks down in tears as she thanks fans for their support - after his ex Maya Henry broke her silence in explosive new interview

Liam Payne's girlfriend Kate Cassidy has taken to social media to thank fans for their support in an emotional new post.

The influencer, 25, fought back tears as she reflected on giving her first interview since the One Direction star's death, where she addressed her decision to leave him in Argentina, just days before his death.

Liam died aged 31 in October following a drug binge, when he fell to his death from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires. His medical cause of death has now been announced to be 'polytrauma', a term which means a person has multiple traumatic injuries to their body.

Kate's post also came just hours after Liam's ex Maya Henry spoke about his death for the first time in an explosive interview, where she said she put herself in 'unsafe and harmful situations' as he battled drug addiction.

In her post on TikTok, Kate emotionally told her followers: 'I wanted to come on here and start by saying thank you so much for all the kind words and support I've received over these past couple of days after going on this interview with The Sun.

'It was not something I undertook lightly and even the past couple of months, thank you so much for all the love and support. 

'I can't even believe I'm sitting here filming this video right now, speaking about this like I'll never really understand.

'This was a platform I used to use for fun with Liam and do all those silly little dances and do our little videos together.

'I'm so glad I have those memories and that I was able to share that side of our relationship with the world.

'I wish Liam was here to be able to see the amount of love and support he's received worldwide because it's what he deserves and what he would have wanted.

'I'm not the only one grieving right now, I know he impacted so many of you guys and he really did love his fans. 

'I just wanted to come on here and say thank you so much for all the kind words once again that have been sent my way because it does not go unnoticed or unseen.

'As I navigate this next chapter of my life without Liam, it's just, I don't even know what to say. It's really kind seeing the support and love that has been sent my way. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.'

Kate has previously dismissed cruel accusations that she abandoned the singer before his death, revealing to The Sun that she had only returned to their Florida home to look after their rescue dog, Nala.

She was home when she received the call telling her Liam had died.

She said it felt like a 'blackout moment', struggling to believe the news at first. She even tried calling his phone - and it still rang.

The content creator admitted she felt blessed that she did not receive the harrowing news via social media.

Instead she had been in the comfort of their home with their beloved dog before one of Liam's friends called her.

She then contacted her boyfriend's family and her mother caught the first flight out to visit her grieving daughter as she attempted to process the devastating news.

Just days after Kate spoke out about Liam's death, his ex-girlfriend Maya Henry broke her silence on his passing in an explosive new interview with Rolling Stone Magazine.

The Texan model, 23, said she loved Liam 'very much', but he was 'unrecognisable' while on drugs and she put herself in 'unsafe and harmful situations' as he battled addiction. They dated for three years before calling off their engagement in 2022.

Speaking to Rolling Stone magazine, she said: 'Initially, it was the drug use and addictions that tore us apart. Anyone who has been with an addict understands how difficult that is. While I loved him deeply, he did things that hurt me in ways I'll never fully understand, and he continued to hurt me years after we broke up.'

According to an insider quoted in the article, Maya didn't learn the full extent of Liam's drug use until near  the end of their relationship, with the source saying: 'It was normal for Liam to do cocaine, ketamine, MDMA, and pharmaceutical pills (Xanax and pain pills). Then he got into smoking heroin.'

Maya said that she hoped each drug-related incident would come as a 'wake up call' to him and she tried to be there to help the troubled star 'fix things'.

Sources close to the singer claimed to Rolling Stone that his behaviour was 'volatile', claiming he was 'seeking out drugs, sexting fans, and hiring sex workers'.

Maya said: 'I knew there were parts of himself he was struggling with — parts of his identity he wasn't ready to fully face, even within our relationship.'

However, in the end Maya was unable to help the star, who went on to struggle with substance abuse in the years after their relationship.

Following Liam's death, Maya became the target of online trolls who unfairly said she was to blame for the death of the singer.

Days before his death, Maya instructed lawyers to issue a cease and desist letter to the pop star after accusing him of repeatedly contacting her.

Maya, who is said to be 'in shock' over Liam's death, has been defended by fans who have rushed to share messages of support in the comments section of her post.

Her supporters have jumped to her defence over vile comments which were posted online after Liam's death.

Underneath her most recent Instagram picture, trolls posted sickening comments asking Maya if 'she was happy' and telling her the death was 'her fault'.

After noticing the comments on her page, many shared their own more positive remarks, reminding Maya that the tragic events were not her fault.

They read: 'For everyone in the comments attacking Maya, Liam's death isn't her fault. She's allowed to share the truth about their relationship and how he treated her. Victims are allowed to tell their stories.

'There is no way that anyone could've seen Liam's death coming. So y'all need to stop attacking her and leave her alone. It's not her fault.'

Others read: 'Girl please take a break from social media if you need or mute the comments. You've done nothing wrong. Take your time to heal'; 'Just want you to know you are so loved and cared for we all stand with you Maya'; Turn your comments off'; 'It's not your fault';

'Leave this woman alone. Y'all don't know what happened. Go pot condolences on his page, but why attack her? Grow up! Be respectful'; It's not your fault, please don't blame yourself';

'People blaming her for Liam's death is so stupid. Victims are allowed to tell their stories, she couldn't have foreseen this death happening. You all need to grow up';

Just days before his death Maya accused the singer of obsessively contacting her friends and family including her mother Azteca Henry.

Lawyers for the star told MailOnline: 'Maya Henry issued a cease and desist last week to Payne following the emergence of new and concerning information.

'She has retained attorneys Marco Crawford and Daniel Cerna to represent her. At this time, that is her only comment on the matter.'

Sharing a brutal assessment of Liam with her TikTok followers in October, Maya - the daughter of multi-millionaire personal-injury lawyer Thomas J. Henry - claimed he has gone to extraordinary lengths in an attempt to contact her.

'Ever since we broke up he messages me, will blow up my phone, not only from his phone, it's always from different phone numbers too, so I never know where it's gonna come from,' she said.

'He'll create new iCloud accounts to message me - it's always a new damn iCloud account. Every time I see one pop up on my phone I'm like, 'here we f***ing go again.'

'Also, he will email me... not only me, but he'll blow up my mom's phone. Is this normal behavior to you?'

She also accused Liam of playing on the loyalty of die-hard One Direction fans across social media to pillory her.

Liam made his first public appearance with Maya in 2019 before their stop-start three-year relationship came to an end in 2022, almost a year after the former couple called off their engagement.

The Strip That Down For Me singer was in a relationship with Kate Cassidy before his untimely death.

Over the past year, Maya has continued to promote her debut novel, Looking Forward - an art-imitating-life romance about a girl who falls in love with a pop star.

She recently opened up about the 'fictional elements' to her book, which she claimed is a fiction novel based on true events from her own life.

On a podcast, The Internet is Dead, Maya addressed how much of the book is fiction and claimed that fans didn't think it was about her ex-boyfriend.

Noting some of the things she changed, Maya said: 'Some of the things that are fictionalized in the book are obviously the name changes, some of the cities are different like I say I'm from Tennessee in the book when I'm from Texas.'

Maya then went on to discuss why fans didn't think the book was about Liam who is father to his son Bear, seven, from his relationship with ex Cheryl Cole.

She said: 'Then also for example another big point was that people were like this can't be about Liam because when I was talking about the abortion he said 'oh I'm not ready for a kid', because he is already a father.'

Explaining why she slightly changed the events, Maya said: 'And in real life that's obviously not the case, but for privacy reasons I just wanted to leave stuff like that out of the book and just tell my story so that's kind of why it is fiction.

'Because if you do something that's nonfiction everything has to be fiction everything has to be so factual and you can't leave anything out.'

Revealing that some of the worst parts of her story were omitted from the story, she said: 'There are a lot of things that are worse than that I did leave out. So it's fiction inspired by true events.'

Liam was found dead by police on October 16 following a fall from the third-floor balcony of a hotel in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires.

He was laid to rest in a moving ceremony on October 31 after his body was returned to the UK.

Following his death, Maya removed herself from Instagram but returned to social media, one week after his funeral took place outside London.

She returned to Instagram to celebrate Thanksgiving with her nearest and dearest.

Alongside several wholesome snaps from through out her day, Maya told her fans what she was grateful for, penning: 'Happy Thanksgiving. Thankful for my family, friends and God.'

Prior to this, Maya's last Instagram post was on October 15, just one day before Liam's fatal fall. Since then the influencer had taken a long break from social media and has limited comments on her post.

At the time of his death, a source close to Maya told DailyMail.com: 'Right now she is obviously in shock.'

The model only found out when a member of her team was contacted by a reporter.