Amid their surging global popularity and the success of their latest album titled “Four” released in November, rumors continue to hound the British-Irish boy band One Direction that some of its members are about to quit.
It could be the price of fame and popularity taking its toll on the band members. Or it could simply be part of a publicity stunt to keep the band in the news all the time. It’s anybody’s guess.
Weeks before the official album release of “Four” on November 17, the rumor mills were literally on fire as to the possible departure of Zayn Malik from the group because of drug problems.
With the smashing success of “Four,” it quashed all those initial speculations as One Direction showed that they still have a lot of mileage ahead of them as a group.
More than building on the gains of their earlier success as a boy band, 1D has shown the world that they have successfully transitioned from teen singers from a TV show (‘The X Factor’) into a team of young men with like-minded artistic vision.
Persistent rumors
Still, rumors about the band splitting continue to persist soon thereafter. Apart from Zayn Malik’s lingering issue about drug use, there was a report that Harry Styles wanted to go solo and showed it when he did not join the band when they flew to Australia late in November.
One day after Christmas, the Inquisitr reported that Zayn Malik seems to have grown tired of the continued spotlight that he shares with his bandmates most of the time.
Zayn is said to be a lone wolf and his absence in many of the band’s TV and public gigs this year have become evident, thus inducing that rumors that he’s into drugs.
Because of the hectic touring and appearance schedules, Zayn had to actually postpone his wedding plans with Little Mix star and fiancée Perrie scheduled this year. He, and practically all of his bandmates, also went down with illness sometime this year, because of their gruelling schedules.
As One Direction’s contract with Simon Cowell’s SyCo group expires at the end of 2015, the Inquisitr hinted that Zayn Malik might consider finally going on his own.
Niall Horan leaving too?
Two days after the report of Zayn Malik quitting the group after 2015 was published, comes the cryptic tweets from Niall Horan on December 28 hinting of plans to leave the band too.
Hollywood Life termed the tweets as shocking news since it has earlier reported that One Direction is already working on their fifth album.
Just like previous reports on One Direction and its band members, both Zayn and Niall have yet to confirm or deny all those speculations about the two of them leaving 1D for good.
Until a formal announcement is made in public, these rumors simply look more like gimmickry in motion to keep One Direction hot as ever. With their immense global popularity however, they’re actually hotter than hot at this time and do not need these negative issues hounding them.