Are One Direction‘s Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson friends?! The former boy band members have a confusing and complicated relationship. Keep reading to see a complete timeline of their feuds.
In August 2022, Zayn posted a video of himself singing One Direction’s “Night Changes,” which immediately made fans of the former band super nostalgic. When a fan asked how it felt like to see Zayn singing One Direction songs, Louis answered, “It was great to see him reminiscing on the one direction days.”
While the two seem to be in a good place now, it wasn’t always that way! After Zayn left One Direction in March 2015, some drama went on between Louis and Zayn on Twitter. On May 4, 2015, former 1D member Liam Payne posted a video with the caption, “new fifth member? I think so.”
Shortly after, Zayn’s music producer and friend Naughty Boy tweeted a photo with Zayn writing, “Replace this” — seemingly responding to Liam’s video. Louis tweeted in response, “Remember when you were 12 and you used to think those Mac filters for your pictures were cool haha ! Some people still do HA!”
Zayn directly responded to Louis, tweeting, “Remember when you had a life and stopped making bitchy comments about mine ?”
Things seemed to simmer down between the two, and Louis revealed he and Zayn made amends after the death of his mom, Johannah Deakin, in 2016. “My mum said: ‘You’ve got to get back in contact with Zayn. Life’s too short,’” Louis told The Sun in July 2017. “A mother’s intuition is just f–king crazy. It always felt supernatural to me. My mum always knew what I was feeling and what I wanted. I can’t stand to hold a grudge with anyone. It doesn’t sit with me right. If there is any animosity, just clear the air. I met up with him and it was nice.”
In May 2019, The Sun‘s Dan Wooten asked how his relationship with Zayn had improved. “Truthfully it never really got better,” Louis replied.
“I had a couple of calls with him after I lost my mum and all the boys had agreed to come to that performance and he didn’t show so that really bugged me,” he continued. Louis then talked about how special it was to have his other bandmates there and be able to bond with them again. “I’ve got goosebumps now,” Louis said about the night. “It was just seeing everyone there—Harry, Niall and Liam—that was what I needed that night, that support.”
Scroll through our gallery to see a timeline of Louis and Zayn’s relationship.
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