Has the British boy band One Direction turned its current hiatus into a permanent breakup?
Us Weekly said Wednesday that the quartet — Niall Horan and Liam Payne, both 22; Harry Styles, who turns 22 on Feb. 1; and Louis Tomlinson, 24 — agreed in October, following their On the Road Again tour, not to renew their recording contract.
Neither the band’s representatives nor the band-members themselves have confirmed the claim.
The globally popular One Direction, which released five albums in five years and has toured extensively, went on hiatus after releasing the fifth, “Made in the A.M.,” on Nov. 13. “I think it’s important for us to take the break and have it as a break,” Styles told Entertainment Tonight. “Obviously it would be naive of us to think that people aren’t going to read into that in a ton of different ways, but we’re just gonna take a little break next year.”
Horan told the entertainment-news shows, “We’re not breaking up. We’re literally taking time out to see our friends and see our family and reflect on what we’ve done over the last few years.”
The band still plans to release at least one more video for its latest album, Us said.
