Not long ago, it felt like One Direction was the biggest band in the world. But after six
years together, the group broke up. The boys became better known for their solo projects...and
their alleged ongoing feuds. Here's why these former One Direction members can't stand each
other.
In March 2015, Zayn Malik made his less-than-graceful exit from One Direction. A spokesperson told
Billboard,
"Zayn has been signed off with stress and is flying back to the U.K. to recuperate.
The band wish him well and will continue with their performances in Manila and Jakarta."
That story was published on March 19th. By March 25th, the writing was on the wall, and
the band's official statement was posted to Facebook. It read in part:
"We're really sad to see Zayn go, but we totally respect his decision and send him all our
love for the future."
Malik''s official message read in part:
"I am leaving because I want to be a normal 22-year-old who is able to relax and have
some private time out of the spotlight. I know I have four friends for life...I know
they will continue to be the best band in the world."
Despite these even-keeled statements, it sounds like some bad blood was building beneath the
surface.
"When I was leaving the band, they obviously didn't want me to leave, but they couldn't
talk me out of it at that point."
During an interview on The Late Late Show with James Corden two months later, Liam Payne
admitted,
"At first, we were a little bit angry, obviously, we were surprised, but we all kind of knew
the general vibe that Zayn was feeling."
But Malik told a different story when interviewed by British Vogue in 2018, revealing that,
"I ain't spoke to any of them for a long time, to be honest with you. That's just the way
it is. There's things that happen and things that were said after I left...Snide things.
Small things that I would never have expected."
Following his departure from One Direction, Zayn Malik seemed to think his former bandmates
full-on ghosted him. In 2016, he told Italian Vogue,
"I did try to reach out to a couple of people and they didn't get back to me, but then publicly,
when they were asked questions about it, said that they'd spoken to me and that we were
friends. But that's not the case, I tried to reach out and be their friend but they
haven't even replied to any of my calls or texts."
But is that what was really going on here? When Niall Horan guest-edited a column for
The Sun back in 2017, he told a rather different story. He said he hadn't spoken to Malik in
quite a while, but not because he wasn't trying. As he put it,
"Zayn's Zayn, not a lot of people would be able to say that they get in touch with him.
He's the hardest man to get in touch with. He is always changing his number."
Frankly, we don't know who to believe. But maybe they should just hop on a call and see
what happens.
In the past, Zayn Malik has opened up about a certain personality trait that probably
made it rather difficult for him to bond with his bandmates. In 2018, he told GQ,
"I didn't really, like, make any friends from the band. I just didn't do it. It's not something
that I'm afraid to say. I deﬁnitely have issues trusting people."
And to really drive the point home, he told British Vogue that same year:
"I have always been a bit like that, though, always a bit of an island. I don't like to
confer with too many people."
"I'm not like a very outgoing, like, social person, like in terms of big groups of people."
At the height of One Direction's fame, it seemed like Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik
shared an unbreakable bond. Unfortunately, something happened along the way that seems
to have severed that friendship for good. In a March 2019 episode of The Dan Wootton
Interview podcast, Tomlinson finally opened up about what went down.
In December 2016, Tomlinson's mother Johannah Deakin passed away from leukemia at the age
of 43. Days later, the star was set to perform on The X Factor. Since this was clearly going
to be a difficult and emotional performance, his former One Direction bandmates flew in
to support him, but Malik never showed up. Discussing their relationship, Tomlinson told
Dan Wootton,
"Truthfully it never really got better to be honest. It never really got better."
He goes on to admit:
"I had a couple of calls with him after I lost my mum and all the boys had agreed to
come to that performance, and he didn't show, so that really bugged me...It was just seeing
everyone there, Harry, Niall and Liam, that was what I needed that night, that support.
So on the other end of the spectrum it kind of really showed. So hey, I hope he's alright."
Days after that interview aired, Malik tweeted and then deleted a post that read:
"I'd like [to apologize] for basically being a s--- person."
There's no way to know if Malik was referring to Tomlinson here, but the timing is certainly
interesting, isn't it?
After he left One Direction, Zayn Malik was openly critical about the band's music. In
a 2015 interview with the Fader, the star boldly claimed,
"If I would sing a hook or a verse slightly R&B, or slightly myself, it would always be
recorded 50 times until there was a straight version that was pop, generic as fuck, so
they could use that version. Whenever I would suggest something, it was like it didn't fit
us."
Elsewhere in the interview, he said,
"That's not music that I would listen to. Would you listen to One Direction, sat at
a party with your girl? I wouldn't. To me, that’s not an insult, that's me as a 22-year-old
man. As much as I was in that band, and I loved everything that we did, that's not music
that I would listen to."
So yeah...There's really not a lot of room for interpretation there. Meanwhile, Malik
showed off his shady side during his 2016 American Music Awards acceptance speech. As
Seventeen reports, the singer looked at his trophy and said,
"This one has just my name on it, right?"
For obvious reasons, these comments didn't sit too well with his former bandmates. Harry
Styles told Rolling Stone,
"I think it's a shame he felt that way, but I never wish anything but luck to anyone doing
what they love. If you're not enjoying something and need to do something else, you absolutely
should do that. I'm glad he’s doing what he likes, and good luck to him."
Louis Tomlinson was a bit more ruthless. In 2019, he told Metro UK:
"At the moment, I am still pretty mad about the whole thing. I don't think [Zayn] handled
it very well. But never say never. Who knows? He chatted a lot of s--- in the early days.
I thought One Direction were pretty good."
"I don't think me or him are mature enough yet to have that conversation. No! Naw, I'm
not ready to have that chat yet."
As The Sun reports, Zayn Malik's 2018 single "Good Years" managed to cause something of
a stir…mostly due to the fact that the lyrics are evidently about his time in One Direction.
Here's a taste:
"I'd rather be anywhere / Anywhere but here / I close my eyes and see a crowd of a thousand
tears / I pray to God I didn't waste all my good years."
Some of the lyrics also touch upon substance abuse and what sounds an awful lot like a
feud between two incredibly stubborn people. Here they are:
"Too much drugs and alcohol / What the hell were we fighting for? / 'Cause now the whole
damn world will know / That we're too numb and just too dumb to change the story / Neither
one, one of us wants to say we're sorry"
Is Malik talking about his former bandmates here? Of course, we can only speculate…but
it sounds like the song's lyrics didn't sit at all well with Malik's former BFF Louis
Tomlinson. Shortly after Malik released "Good Years," Tomlinson mysteriously tweeted,
"Proper confused. What a hypocrite!"
While no one can say for sure whether the message was directed at Malik, fans thought
it seemed pretty suspect. What do you think?
While he was still in One Direction, Zayn Malik evidently had some creative differences
with the rest of the band. In an interview with Beats 1, the star revealed:
"I think I kind of always wanted to go. Like, from the first year, really. I never, like,
wanted to be there, in the band."
Elsewhere in the interview, he said,
"I realized the direction that we were going in, mind the pun, with the music. I instantly
realized it wasn't for me because I realized I couldn't put any input in."
Meanwhile, Liam Payne felt the need to critique Harry Styles' music in an interview with Music
Choice. The "Strip that Down" singer admitted that he really didn't really like it…though
he somewhat sugar-coated his views.
"I'll be honest with you, it's not my sort of music, so it's not something I'd listen
to, but I think he did a great job of doing what he wanted to do."
How...diplomatic of him.
It sounds like One Direction skyrocketed to fame so quickly, the band never really had
a chance to enjoy their success, or even process what was happening. As Insider reports, the
band released five albums in just five years…which is practically unheard of in this era of EPs
and two-year album cycles. Between 2010 and 2012, its members went from being reality
TV show contestants to literally closing out the Olympics.
Zayn Malik claims this whirlwind ended up tearing the band apart. In an interview with
British Vogue, he admitted that he felt numb on stage by the time he quit the band in 2015.
As he puts it,
"We went from theatres, to arenas, to stadiums, there was never any sort of bridge between.
Just boom, boom, boom. I guess that kind of progression to any mind...it kind of affects
you a little bit. People take it different ways, especially when there are five different
personalities. The relationships had broken apart."
Malik wasn't the only one who felt this way. In an interview with KISS FM, Liam Payne revealed
he'd struggled with performing after One Direction announced its hiatus, because fame was so
difficult the first time around. He said,
"It scared the living daylights out of me. Because the last time it nearly killed me,
frankly."
It's pretty much impossible for any member of One Direction to do an interview and not
be asked about their various grudges. But most of their past troubles sound like water
under the bridge. In a 2019 interview with British GQ, Liam Payne admitted,
"We had our differences throughout the whole experience with some things. I still think
about some stuff that was said and done that now I would do differently, but then that's
all part of growing up...Everyone has stuff they’ve said at parties they wished they
hadn't but, for [One Direction], the difference was that it was all happening in front of
the world."
But there's still one thing he couldn't let go of: The way Zayn Malik quit. As he put
it:
"I think with Zayn's particular exit and the way he chose to go, we haven't really heard
from him since he left. He didn't even say goodbye, if I am being honest. It was a really
sordid scenario, from our side certainly. A bit strange. It's difficult."
When Simon Cowell first put One Direction together, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson apparently
couldn't stand one other, and Payne isn't afraid to admit it. In a September 2019 interview
with Hits Radio, he confessed,
"When we were in the band it kind of felt like, because he was the oldest and because
I'd been singing for quite a little bit of time, we both got put in a weird position."
And what exactly was that weird position? Well, as Payne explains it,
"[Tomlinson] was wanting to be the leader, and I was doing my thing and obviously wanted
to [be the leader], so at first, we didn't get on at all. We absolutely hated each other.
It was so funny."
"Don't remember hearing that in the early days."
"Really bad. Really bad."
But times change, people change…and boy-band dynamics change. It sounds like these days,
Payne and Tomlinson have a genuinely terrific friendship. As Payne told Germany's Bild Magazine
in 2018,
"I've heard [Louis's] voice every day for so many years that it's weird not to hear
from him for several months now. We call from time to time, and our sons are finally [getting]
to know each other. We became dads around the same time."
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