Singer Louis Tomlinson thought One Direction break would be a year

The 30-year-old singer admitted he didn’t want the band – which included Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Niall Horan following the departure of Zayn Malik – to go on indefinite hiatus in 2016 and found it particularly frustrating that no one would put a time point on when they would reconcile, making it hard for him to move on.

“When we had the conversations, we never got any real clarity on what it was. And I can remember going into those meetings and saying, ‘You know, I understand – it’s not what I want – but all I would ask is just put a rough time on how long a break.’

“And there was never really an answer.

“So I definitely came out of the band, crossing my fingers thinking, ‘Oh, maybe it’s only going to be like a year or two.’

“That’s also why it took me a long time to get over it because I didn’t really know what it was. I think that’s probably stopped me from going into my solo career because I was still just thinking I wanted to be in that band.”

“I suppose it’s only a break if we ever get back together!

The ‘Walls’ singer praised the support One Direction always had around them but admitted sometimes “a little throwaway phrase” could bother him for months at a time.

He said: “In terms of One Direction, it’s often easy to stereotype these big evil managers or big evil label heads who demanded that we did this [or that].

“It wasn’t really like that, I will say that everyone did their best by us, and I’m talking specifically about our mental health.

“However, being an artist is very individual and the pressures that you have day-to-day, no manager or record boss understands that.

“Until you experience it, you don’t understand it.

“Sometimes words are powerful, it can be a little throwaway phrase that comes from this suited label boss and you think about that for the next couple of months.”