Liam Payne proposed to Maya Henry with her grandmother's ring.

Instead of shelling out on a pricey diamond with no sentimental value, Liam, 26 - who recently popped the question - chose to remodel a cherished ring that Maya, 20, received from her grandmother.

A source told The Sun newspaper: ''Liam is absolutely smitten with Maya and living together in lockdown made him realise she is absolutely the one for him.

''He was determined to make it the perfect proposal so instead of shelling out a fortune on a ring that didn't mean anything, he proposed using one which is cherished in her family.

''It meant so much to Maya and she was over the moon. It's been remodelled for her and is extremely special.''

It has also been revealed that the couple have no plans to tie the knot in the near future.

The insider explained: ''They're in no rush to tie the knot but Liam wanted to show his commitment by proposing now.''

Meanwhile, Liam first met heiress Maya at a One Direction meet-and-greet in 2015 when she was a teenager, but they did not start dating until 2018.

And Liam - who has three-year-old son Bear with ex-girlfriend Cheryl Tweedy - previously gushed that Maya is his ''best friend''.

He said: ''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. I don't think I've ever really experienced that before in someone so it's quite a wonder to watch actually.

''For the longest time, living such an exposed life made dating really hard.

''I'm kind of at the place in my life now where I just see it's not worth sacrificing my happiness just because somebody might see something. I don't have anything to hide, so I'm really happy right now and things are good.''