Louis Tomlinson says he was not ready for long One Direction hiatus

Louis Tomlinson has said he was not ready for “how long” a hiatus One Direction have taken, and that he felt “a bit petulant” when the decision was made.

The singer-songwriter and his co-stars Harry Styles, Liam Payne and Niall Horan parted ways in 2016 after five years together as one of the world’s biggest boy bands, and Tomlinson said that the temporary split hit him “like a ton of bricks”.

However, he has said that he hopes a reunion does take place one day so they can all relive the “magical” experience of the band.

Tomlinson, 28, told The Independent: “We’d done such a lot of work in a short space of time so a break was inevitable.

“But I don’t think I was necessarily ready for how long. We had a band meeting and everyone just said, ‘Maybe we’ll put it on the back burner for a bit,’ and I felt a bit petulant about that at the time.

“It actually hit me like a ton of bricks.”

Tomlinson, who will soon release his debut solo album Walls, said he thinks the word hiatus is “a stupid f****** word”, adding that none of the One Direction members “truly know” if they will reform.

However, he added: “I just know what my gut says and my gut says we will get back together at some point.

“I think it was too magical for all of us to never do it again.”

One Direction, which previously included band member Zayn Malik, were formed on The X Factor in 2010.

They went on to score major global success and became one of the biggest boy bands in history, scoring four UK number one albums and four in the US, with a reported 50 million records sold overall.

The chart-toppers, known for hits including Best Song Ever, Steal My Girl and What Makes You Beautiful, embarked on several world tours during their time together before going on their indefinite hiatus in early 2016.

Despite the pressures of rising to fame so quickly and at such a young age, Tomlinson said that they were “always in control of our destiny”.

He said that being in the band and everything that came with it was “like a drug”, adding: “It’s that feeling of heightened emotion and every day being manically busy, and the hysteria.

“Although you might complain about it, none of us said, ‘No, we don’t wanna do that.’ We were just in it. We were f****** loving it.”