Louis and Niall unfollow Simon Cowell after brutal One Direction comment
Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan appear to have cut ties with Simon Cowell.
Former X Factor boss Simon, 64, recently appeared on a podcast and shared one regret he has over his time with One Direction. The music mogul mentored the chart-mauling band during their stint on the former talent show before later signing them to Syco Records.
One Direction finished in third place on the talent show and have since gone on to sell over 70 million records across the globe. But four years after they found fame, Zayn Malik announced his departure from the group in order to live a more humbled life having openly struggled during his time touring.
One year later, Harry Styles, Louis, Liam Payne and Niall announced that they would be taking an indefinite hiatus following their final tour. But while Tomlinson, 32, and Horan, 30, remained close to their former mentor, it appears this is no longer the case. Both lads have since unfollowed Simon on Instagram after he stated he “regretted’ not keeping the One Direction name.
Simon recently stated he regretted not owning the One Direction name ( Image: The Diary Of A Ceo/Youtube)
Despite the band not working together since 2016, the group continue to rake in huge profits, with an eye-watering £2.9 million sat in their joint company account. Now, Louis and Niall have cut ties with their former mentor and have since unfollowed him on Instagram.
The lads are also not following Simon on their Twitter pages. Simon recently confirmed that although One Direction are on a hiatus, the members continue to own the name, meaning he is unable to profit from them. “That’s the problem, could have made an animation or whatever but when you give an artist the name, it’s not yours and that’s my only regret,” he told Steven Bartlett on the Diary of A CEO podcast.
Simon went on to say: “So if you’re listening, I’ll buy it back from you. But that’s the only thing I do regret. If one of the band members, for whatever reason say they don’t want to tour, it can stop the others touring, so if it was me who owned the name, it wouldn’t be a problem.”
Cowell had previously hinted at a feud between himself and some members of the band, stating that Harry, Niall and Louis had been “incredibly loyal” to him. Payne, 30, signed a record deal with Republic Records in 2016, while his former bandmates continued to work alongside Cowell.
The Strip That Down hitmaker previously stated that he and his bandmates were “definitely overworked” during their career, admitting he had “no personal life”. In a candid admission, he said: “I just lived so long as this reclusive pop star who was afraid of people, who just stayed inside all the time. I needed to stop, definitely. It would have killed me.”
