Simon Cowell revealed that Harry Styles called him personally after the former X Factor judge made scathing comments about the band One Direction. Harry, Mullingar man Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Liam Payne had all auditioned for the X Factor as individual singers before being placed in a five-piece boyband that would become One Direction — who would go on to be one of the most successful boybands of the 21st century. After Zayn’s departure in 2014, the band went on an indefinite ‘hiatus’ in 2016 with the lads all going on solo careers — with Simon saying on the Diary of a CEO podcast that he regrets not keeping the brand name One Direction, rendering him unable to make any decisions on making new projects or merchandise using the name.
‘The one thing I regret is I should have owned the name,’ Simon told the podcast host Steven Bartlett. ‘They own the name. I could have made an animation or something.
That was me being very naive. Next time I need to own the name.’ After the comments on the podcast, it appeared that both Niall and Louis have unfollowed him on social media — but Simon said that Harry called him personally after the podcast, with the pair reminiscing on their time working together.
‘It was great to hear from him,’ he told Hello! magazine. ‘He said listening to the podcast reminded him of what a great time we had together.’ ‘I thought it said so much about him that he would bother to make that phone call.
’ Simon a.
