The Tragedy Of One Direction Explained

After they all failed to sufficiently wow judges in their individual runs on the U.K. version of the singing competition show "The X Factor," five young male singers joined forces in 2010 to become One Direction. That five-voiced group — consisting of Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Zayne Malik, Harry Styles, and Liam Payne — became the biggest boy band of their generation, selling millions of units, a lot of One Direction posters, and ascending the British and American charts with tunes like "What Makes You Beautiful," "Best Song Ever," and "Story of My Life."

When One Direction announced in 2015 that it would be taking an indefinite pause (which later proved permanent), its throngs of adoring fans and admirers considered it one of the most devastating band break ups of the past decade. Malik was the first to leave the act, in the midst of a tour, after learning that his cohort was hesitant to keep going with the band. "I knew something was happening, so I just got ahead of the curve," he told the "Call Her Daddy" podcast (via BBC). "There was obviously underlying issues within our friendships, too. We'd got sick of each other if I'm being completely honest."

An objectively sad ending to an endeavor that made a lot of people very happy, it's not nearly the worst thing to ever happen to the newly minted superstar singers. Here are the most tragic things to ever happen to the members of One Direction.

Since "The X Factor" and One Direction made him into a world-famous superstar in 2010, Harry Styles has been romantically linked to many famous women, including Taylor Swift and Olivia Wilde. Styles' first, post-rise relationship came in 2011, and it was with U.K. television host Caroline Flack, well known for her stint as a presenter on "The X Factor" spinoff "The Xtra Factor." It was a musician relationship with a controversial age gap and even one considered illegal in many jurisdictions —when the couple was dating, Flack was 31 years old and Styles was 17. "We were both single, we got on well and we had a laugh," Flack told "The Sun on Sunday" (via NME). "It was only when it became public knowledge that things turned sour." Shortly after Flack endured heckles on the street accusing her of being a sex offender, the relationship ended.

In 2020, and facing a courtroom trial over charges she assaulted her then-partner, Flack died by suicide, according to a London coroner. Flack was 40 years old. In lieu of a statement, Styles performed at the BRIT Awards while wearing a black ribbon and a button bearing Flack's quotation, "Treat people with kindness."

One Direction member Louis Tomlinson was raised in Doncaster, England by his stepfather Mark Tomlinson and mother Johannah Deakin, who worked as a midwife. They divorced in 2011, and in early 2016, doctors diagnosed Deakin with a particularly serious variant of leukemia, a cancer affecting the blood and bone marrow. Deakin died in December 2016 at the age of 43. One of her final requests was for Tomlinson to proceed with a planned spot on "The X Factor" scheduled to take place just days after Deakin's death, according to People.

Tomlinson grew up in a blended family of seven siblings and half-siblings, and less than three years after his mother died, one of the singer's younger sisters died, too. In March 2019, Felicité Tomlinson was discovered in her London apartment. Not responsive, she died soon thereafter of what authorities initially ruled a heart attack. A coroner's investigation conducted later in 2019 determined that the younger Tomlinson died from a fatal, excessive mixture of prescription anxiety medication, painkillers, and cocaine. Felicité Tomlinson was 18 years old.

Liam Payne recognized a significant period of his time in One Direction after seeing past photos of himself and realizing his face looked different, calling it his "pills and booze face." He told the "Diary of a CEO" podcast of his bloated image, "My face was just like 10 times more than it is now ... The problem we had in the band ... the best way to secure us because of how big it got, was just lock us in our rooms, and of course, what's in the room? A minibar." His consumption of alcohol, and prescription drugs, grew out of hand. "I thought, well, I'm going to have a party for one and that just seemed to carry on throughout many years of my life," Payne explained. The consistent substance abuse further led to thoughts of suicide, Payne said.

Drinking so much alcohol taxed Payne's kidney — most people have two of the organ, but the singer only had one that worked, a complication of his premature birth, until the problem corrected itself sometime around 2012, according to what Payne posted on X (formerly Twitter). In August 2023, Payne felt so ill that he checked himself into a hospital, where he learned that he was suffering from an infection of a kidney. It was days before Payne's scheduled tour of South America, a jaunt he had to call off. "Over the past week I've been in hospital with a serious kidney infection, it's something I wouldn't wish on anyone, and doctors orders are that I now need to rest and recover," Payne said on his social media pages (via Billboard).

In late September 2024, former One Direction member Liam Payne arrived in Argentina for a vacation. "It's a lovely day here in Argentina," he said in a video posted to Snapchat (via Reuters) on October 16, in which he also discussed an itinerary of horseback riding and polo. At the time, Payne was staying in a third-floor, courtyard-overlooking room at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires. According to a recorded phone call released to the media by city officials, a hotel employee called police over concern for an extremely agitated guest that would turn out to be Payne. "When he is conscious, he is destroying the entire room and we need you to send someone," the worker said, according to Reuters, also suggesting that the balcony presented a threat to the guest's safety.

Responding officers were told that the man in question might be intoxicated on alcohol or drugs, and when they arrived at CasaSur, the manager told them that he'd just heard a commotion in the courtyard. That's where the police discovered Payne. He'd evidently fallen off his balcony to the ground three stories below. Payne was pronounced dead at the age of 31.

In March 2015, Zayn Malik became the first member of One Direction to leave the popular boy band. His sudden departure from a tour of Asia was the first public suggestion that the singer was dealing with some significant mental health issues. "Zayn has signed off with stress and is flying back to the U.K. to recuperate," One Direction's spokesperson said on TwitLonger (via The Guardian).

Following the split of One Direction, Malik quickly embarked on a solo career, and in June 2016 he canceled his scheduled slot on the Capital Summertime Ball in London. "Unfortunately my anxiety that has haunted me throughout the last few months around live performances has gotten the better of me," Malik wrote on X. "With the magnitude of the event, I have suffered the worst anxiety of my career." After privately exercising self-care, Malik found some peace. "I now have no problem with anxiety. It was something I was dealing with in the band," he told The Sunday Times in 2017. In that interview, the singer also shared that he coped with an eating disorder during his time in One Direction. "Every area of my life was so regimented and controlled it was the one area where I could say, 'No, I'm not eating that," Malik shared. "Once I got over the control, the eating just came back into place."