Louis Tomlinson appears to have cut web ties with former One Direction bandmate Zayn Malik.
Tomlinson, 34, has unfollowed Malik, 33, on Instagram as of Saturday, April 18. When the change occurred stays unclear, but Tomlinson’s sisters, Phoebe and Lottie, are also not following the “Pillowtalk” singer. Tomlinson remains to be following his other 1D group members, Harry Styles, Niall Horan and the late Liam Payne.
Malik, for his part, was still following Tomlinson on the time of publication. (The Sun was first to report the news.)
Tomlinson’s social media move comes at some point after The Sun reported about an alleged physical altercation between the musicians. The incident allegedly occurred while the duo were filming their unnamed three-episode docuseries.
The series, produced by Campfire Studios, is supposed to follow Tomlinson and Malik as they “embark on a road trip across America in a spontaneous adventure of reconnection, exploration and numerous laughter,” in keeping with a fall 2025 press release.
The previous bandmates would also open up about “life, love, loss, fatherhood” and their late bandmate Payne. (Malik is dad to daughter Khai, 5, whom he shares with ex Gigi Hadid, while Tomlinson shares son Freddie, 8, with ex Briana Jungwirth. )
Shortly after news broke of Tomlinson and Malik’s alleged feud, the doc’s director, Nicola Marsh, shared a post about The Sun’s reporting via her Instagram Stories, per screenshots taken by multiple outlets.
The long run of the docuseries stays uncertain. Us Weekly has reached out to Tomlinson, Malik and Campfire Studios for comment.
Tomlinson and Malik met in 2010 after they each appeared on X-Factor and were paired with Styles, Horan and Payne to form One Direction. They subsequently shot to global superstardom, remaining a fivesome until Malik’s departure in 2015. 1D announced their official hiatus the next 12 months in January 2016.
While talking to Us in 2017, Malik confirmed that his relationships with the opposite group members had modified because the band ended, but insisted that everybody stays on a “civil leve.l”
“It’s not the way in which it was once. Obviously, we were lots closer because we were together all the time, spending 24 hours a day within the band, and now we’re not, so we’re living our own lives,” he told Us. “We’re all growing as individual men, and we still communicate and check in with one another, not as much as we used to.”
Tomlinson told The Sun that very same 12 months that he and Malik had recently reconnected.
“My mum said, ‘You’ve got to get back involved with Zayn. Life’s too f***ing short,’ ” Tomlinson recalled on the time, adding that pair “really care about one another.”
“I could all the time break the foundations somewhat bit with Zayn,” he quipped. “It was that brotherly love. We are going to all the time have that love for one another.”
Tomlinson and Malik were reunited again alongside Styles and Horan after Payne’s tragic death at age 31 in October 2024. The foursome made their first public appearance together since Malik’s departure at Payne’s funeral.
Musical superstars. Pop boy band One Direction became one among the largest groups of the 2010s after its five members — Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne and Zayn Malik — met as contestants on the truth television series The X consider 2010. The five singers became a gaggle at judge Simon Cowell’s […]
Tomlinson later stated that Payne’s passing had brought the previous bandmates back together again, but he wasn’t sure if that renewed bond would last.
“I suppose that we’ll see in time,” he told Billboard in a January interview. “Naturally, there’s a closeness — it definitely feels closer than it was. But I feel we’re all so busy, it’s hard to maintain that consistency.”
The “Lemonade” singer noted that the relationships were different individual to individual. “Like, Niall — and hopefully he’d say the identical about me — we couldn’t exchange a text in an entire 12 months after which go for a beer and literally be chatting nonstop,” he said.