One Direction, the British-Irish boy group comprising Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik, embarked on their globally famed career paths all together after being created on X Factor back in 2010. Five years on, Zayn Malik decided to exit the team suddenly, leaving his bandmates and the world in shock. Now, in an interview on the Diary of a CEO podcast, Louis Tomlinson opened up about feeling hurt because he was unaware of the younger one’s decision until after it happened. He also revealed how things were just one night before his departure and where he stood with it now.
Louis Tomlinson recalled the night before it all went down. Speaking about March 24, 2015, he shared about how things were looking as usual within the team. However, nothing prepared him for what was to come, and the 33-year-old was not happy about it. “I thought that we had a relationship where he could’ve had that conversation with me.” He did, however, realize why Zayn Malik chose not to tell him because, “If he told me, I would have tried to tell him to stay.”
Revealing the exact situation, he shared, “That evening, the night before we found out, everything was normal. We’re in the hotel room. And then he left at maybe like 11, he was called, [he was] in a bad mood or something like that. The next morning, we had a shoot for a sponsor, and we found out that he wasn’t coming.”
Initially, the boys thought nothing of it. “If he (Zayn Malik) didn’t wanna do something, he literally wouldn’t do it. You name it, and if it’s not right for him, he won’t do it. And that’s probably why he left the band. And that’s what I admire about him.” Unlike him, the older and different Louis Tomlinson would have tolerated it for the big picture.
There’s one question that follows the star, “I wanna know if he regrets it.” He added that Zayn Malik ‘must miss it’. He hopes to have an open conversation about the exit and their relationship, as well as how it could have panned out instead.
“But it absolutely crushed me, I was absolutely devastated, because it felt like ‘Oh, is this the beginning of the end of the band?’ But also because this is your best mate in the band at the time, so I’d lost a friend and someone in the band.”
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