Since news broke of One Direction’s impending hiatus, rumors have swirled about the British boy band’s fate. But the mastermind behind the group, Simon Cowell, says there’s no bad blood between the boys, they’re just “exhausted.”
Cowell told Yahoo Celebrity UK at the launch of the latest season of The X Factor that 1D members Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson have been “100 percent” overworked since joining the talent show in 2010.
“Even though they were young, that was a grueling schedule and after a while I could see they were exhausted,” Cowell said.
He added: “Having a year off is going to be a healthy thing.”
“I don’t know if they’re definitely going to split up to be honest with you,” he told Yahoo. He later added that the men are “loyal” and will “be fine.”
A source told E! News that while the group will work on individual projects during their time apart, they will remain close.
“They will remain together and plan to work together in the future,” the source said, later adding that the members “fully support one another.”
Cowell, too, is holding out hope for group, which is signed to his record label, to reunite after the break.
“As I’ve always done with the guys, I said ‘Make your own decisions. I hope you stay together, but you’ve got to want to do it for yourselves,’ ” he told Yahoo. “But they’re smart guys, and they’ll work it out.”