Louis Tomlinson Says Harry Styles Romance Rumors 'Irritate' Him: 'At Times It Gets Far Too Personal'

The former One Direction star admitted that he's realized there's "nothing" he can say to "dispel the believers of that conspiracy"

For years, a select faction of One Direction fans have pushed forth a conspiracy theory that Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson’s close friendship was something more romantic.

Though Tomlinson has previously shut down the rumors, they’ve continued on, even during the band’s indefinite hiatus — and now, the singer is opening up about his frustrations.

“What’s tough is, I realized this some years ago — there is nothing I can say. There is nothing I can do to dispel the believers of that conspiracy,” he told Brazilian news outlet G1. “They are so intertwined with what they believe to be the truth now that they won’t actually see the truth for what it is.”

Tomlinson, 32, and Styles, 30, rose to fame together as members of One Direction, which formed on The X Factor competition series in 2010.

Related: Louis Tomlinson Says Harry Styles' Success Used to Bother Him: 'I'd Be Lying If I Said It Didn't'

Though the band announced an extended hiatus in 2016 and each member has since pursued a solo career, fans have long speculated about the pair’s close friendship in the early 2010s. The theory that they were in a secret relationship was even featured in a 2019 episode of the hit show Euphoria, when the character Kat Hernandez wrote an explicit fan-fiction scene of Styles and Tomlinson that aired as an animated sequence.

“It does irritate me a little bit, you know? But it is just kind of [the] nature of the job, I suppose,” Tomlinson told G1. “There are times where it gets a little bit… at times it gets far too personal within that whole space. I’ve got my son Freddie [who is] the most important person in my life. Occasionally it kind of broaches some stuff that is really unfair.”

He continued: “So it kind of just is this thing that exists now. There’s nothing I can do about it, there’s nothing I can say about it to stop people making up what they want to make up. So be it!”

Tomlinson — who is dad to 8-year-old Freddie with ex Briana Jungwirth — has praised Styles in recent years, telling The Telegraph that he thought of the "Watermelon Sugar" singer "like a brother."

Related: Zayn Malik Recalls Saving Harry Styles from 'Really Dangerous' Pyrotechnic Mishap at One Direction Concert

He’s also been open about the ways in which One Direction’s split was a difficult time for him, especially as it preceded personal tragedy (Tomlinson’s mom Johannah Deakin died of leukemia at 43 in 2016, and his 18-year-old sister Félicité died in 2019 after accidentally overdosing on cocaine, painkillers and an anxiety drug).

"When One Direction split up, I was mortified, I was absolutely gutted," he told The Times in 2023. "I was a bit bitter, I suppose because it just felt like another loss to me. But I've a better understanding of things now, and there's not as much anger. It is what it is."

Still, he admitted that he’d be up for a reunion with Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Liam Payne at some point in the future.

"Getting back together at some point is hard to imagine right now," he continued to The Times. "But I'd be surprised if we lived out our lives and didn't have a moment where we had a reunion, or whatever you want to call it. I'd be up for that.”

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