The guys of One Direction will always be brothers, no matter what. Through all of the solo albums, tours, and movies, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne and yes, even Zayn Malik will always be 1D in their hearts and souls. Zayn might’ve said goodbye to his boy band days back on March 25, 2015 (a day that is seared in our memories forever), but the rest of the guys kept things going until December of 2015 when they gave their final performance together at X Factor, the place where it all began for them. Since then, we’ve been in hiatus mode and each guy has gone on to do his own thing. But along the way, they have made sure to never forget where they belong and since the band has gone on a break, they have all said nothing but the sweetest things about each other and their time as a group.

The guys recently celebrated eight years since the band was formed, each taking to Twitter to share their messages that simply tugged on all our heartstrings. Harry, of course, couldn’t believe it’s been THAT long since the band formed and thanked the fans again for all they’ve done.

Niall basically felt the same way as Harry, thinking back on how far he’s come with his “lads,” which like brb, crying already.

Louis, too, thanked Directioners as always.

And in typical Tommo fashion, reminded everyone of all the hits he wrote for the band. Casual.

And then Liam chimed in too, really making us reach for the tissues, calling his bandmates his “brothers.”

UGH, puddle of feels rn. The fact that the guys are still celebrating their bandiversary is nothing short of special. The 7-year anniversary shout-out was enough to put us over the edge last year. Let’s revisit, shall we? Harry decided to thank the fans seven times, one message of gratitude for every year.

Niall gave the fandom the highest compliment ever, letting everyone know they changed his life forever.

Louis, again, couldn’t believe how long it’s been, and we’re like same, bro.

And leave it to Liam for letting the fans know they are the ones who inspire him, so cue the tears.

Well, the boys and their kind words are inspiring us now, being their cute AF selves, so we decided to round up all of the most precious things the guys have said about each other and what it was like being in 1D since they officially (and temporarily) went their separate ways. As Liam once so eloquently put it when he accepted a 2017 Brit Award on the band’s behalf, “One Direction is who we are and who we always will be.” And even in their solo endeavors, they’re all still singing 1D hits during their shows, so the band’s legacy will forever live on, that’s for sure. Along with their brotherly love for each other. 

Niall Horan

“I told my ­managers from the start: When One Direction comes knocking, [forget]what I’m doing. I don’t give a [crap] if I sold out arenas or won Grammys. I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t for that,” Niall said to Billboard.

“What do I miss most about the lads. I suppose being around everyone all the time. You know, you spend so much time together. We tour for nine months of the year and then do promo for the last few, so [not] being around everyone every day is obviously a bit of a change, but everyone gets to keep in touch with each other, and it’s great. We’ve always had a great relationship and we always will,” Niall said.

“In the band, we wrote songs separately and then brought them to the group, and you’d get the harsh truth about that song from everyone. It was a little strange at the start, being by myself. Now I’m spending a lot more time in my own head, asking myself, ‘Is this song working or should I just chuck it?'” Niall honestly shared in an interview about his songwriting skills now as a solo artist compared to how things operated in the group.

“Louis knows we all adore him and he’s extremely a vital member of One Direction,” Niall said. “He’s an unbelievable guy, a great singer, and someone that if, I say we would’ve lost a plot along the way if we hadn’t had Louis. He was a very very, extremely vital part of One Direction,” he added.

Louis Tomlinson

“The others have always been… Like Niall, for example. He’s the most lovely guy in the world. Happy-go-lucky Irish, no sense of arrogance. And he’s fearless. There are times I’ve thought: ‘I’d have a bit of that.’ Zayn, back in the day. He could relate to me on a nerves level. In the first year we were both the least confident. But Zayn has a fantastic voice and for him it was always about owning that. Liam always had a good stage presence, same as Harry, they’ve both got that ownership. Harry comes across very cool. Liam’s all about getting the crowd going, doing a bit of dancing…And then there’s me,” Louis honestly shared with The Guardian

“I think it was obvious to everyone that we were always five best mates on the road; it was real nice. And as time went on, we all began to understand each other. There are often misconceptions, but we’re all such good mates,” Louis said to Noisey. “If you look at the X Factor final, when I performed my song with Steve, all the boys came to support me, and I didn’t know until a couple of hours beforehand. It wasn’t one of those stupid celebrity things where it’s like, ‘let’s all get in a picture and put it on Instagram and show everyone that we’re best mates’ ­ — we didn’t even put it online. There are always those little things that people don’t hear about.”

“He’s lovely Niall, honestly. Melts my heart always,” Louis said to Nick Grimshaw. (Preach it Louis, preach.)

Harry Styles

“I love the band, and would never rule out anything in the future. The band changed my life, gave me everything,” Harry said to Rolling Stone.

“Maybe at some point everyone will want to do something again but it’s better if it happens naturally like, ‘Hey we all really want to do this again.’ If that were to happen it would be amazing. I would never rule that out. It’s the most important, greatest thing that ever happened to me, being in that band,” Harry said. “The nice thing for me is that I’m not coming away from the band feeling like I wasn’t able to do what I wanted to do.

Liam Payne

“I think we need to come back as a whole. It’s like the Avengers, you shout and we all come running, that’s what happens,” Liam said to Dan Wootton in his Bizarre Life podcast.

“In my head, I feel like there’s a One Direction album out there right now, just not everybody realizes they’ve already listened to it. Everyone’s out doing great stuff: Harry came out and did [a] film and his song at the start of the year, along with Niall and obviously Louis with his dance thing and Zayn’s popping off with his stuff, so there’s an album going on there, we’re just not together at the moment, which is great. Success for everyone is the most amazing thing and just shows the power of our band and you realize now the reason why it went as well as it did because everyone was dedicated. Everyone is out there working still. It’s amazing. I’m very proud tow work with such dedicated people,” Liam said to MUCH.

“We got on well in One Direction, but there were times when we didn’t. Certain members fell out with each other sometimes, but it would always come back round. So, I don’t ever think that I won’t be friends with these people for life. But I think it’s important in anything that you can think about everything you would have liked to change about yourself and then grow,” Liam said to Hashtag Legend about his time in the band. “Seeing everybody come out with different sounds has been really exciting. I went to Louis’ house the other day and the first thing we were talking about was like, ‘Did you really realiZe how big what we just did was?’ And we kind of both just sat there – there was nothing really said, but you could tell we were both thinking, ‘That was some mad s–t, dude.’ And it was! You don’t even realiZe until you come out of it and look back. The success we saw was how many people would turn up at a concert. And then seeing other people selling out these venues, select groups of people, and we played there so many times – like the Rose Bowl three times in a row. That’s nuts! But even when you read it in the paper, like ‘the world’s biggest boy band’ — we did something that was ‘the world’s biggest’. It doesn’t really matter what it was. Like, if I made the world’s biggest orange, I’d be quite happy about that, you know what I mean? You can’t top that.”

“It was very tough. There was three of us in the room to start with together, which was nice to see, I hadn’t seen everyone for ages. But it was nice that everyone had turned up and I was so glad that we did,” Liam said to Dan about the guys reuniting right after Louis’ mom Johannah passed away. “We literally all flew the world over to get to that gig and Louis walked in and there was a really nice moment when we all kind of had a little huddle and it for me it was the first time in the five or six years we’ve been together now where we were actually fully best mates. We weren’t even a band that night that’s the first night we were fully like top top top lads. And yeah it was obviously the most sad occasion, it was bittersweet in a sense because it felt so lovely for us all to be there and yes, we are fully in this for the long run but at the same time, what a tragic, tragic, tragic loss.”

“I can’t rate the boys’ singles!” Liam said on First We Feast when he was asked to rank Louis, Niall, Harry and Zayn’s solo singles from his most to least favorite. “This is the theory: everyone’s kind of such different stuff. I think it’s down to each person’s musical taste. It’s not so much down to the idea of what was best, and worst songs because I don’t think there are any worst songs. I think everyone did the best of what they wanted to make.”

“My favorite memory was when we first did Madison Square Garden. We popped out of the floor and it was just the most amazing feeling ever, knowing that we were in Madison Square Garden. And our album — we’d just broke the record for debuting at #1 on the charts, so that was a real fun memory of mine,” Liam said to Buzzfeed when he was asked about his favorite overall career memory so far.

Quietly cries to “Don’t Forget Where You Belong.”

Honorable Mention: Zayn Malik

So we know, Zayn chose to leave the band before the hiatus so he’s technically no longer a member of 1D, but he will always be a part of the family since he did stick by their sides for five years. In his autobiography, Z praised his time in the group and admitted that it’s forever a part of him too, despite you know, that he’s been known to throw some shade every now and then at his boy band past.

“I can honestly say I’m proud of a lot of stuff from the One Direction days. I’m not sure people realize that, but I am,” Zayn wrote. “I’ve got the memorabilia – the platinum discs we received with every album – all over my house. I have a wall dedicated to displaying them. One Direction was an incredible experience in its own right, and it’s a part of me, an integral part of my history, and I’m never going to deny that aspect of my life.”

Plus, he even admitted in a new interview with 97.1 AMP Radio that he’s not only rekindled his friendship with Niall, but the guys don’t feel any sense of competition with each other when it comes to their solo sucessess.

“I actually just spoke to Niall a couple of days ago. We just really support each other. I was saying to him I’m really proud of him and how well his music is doing. It’s almost like an older brother watching him. It was cool to have that conversation with him. We all support each other, there’s no real competition I don’t think,” Zayn said.

At the end of the day, they’re simply brothers forever. No matter what.

one direction group hug

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