Louis Tomlinson appears to have cut internet 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 remains unclear, but Tomlinson’s sisters, Phoebe and Lottie, are also no longer following the “Pillowtalk” singer. Tomlinson is still following his other 1D group members, Harry Styles, Niall Horan and the late Liam Payne.
Malik, for his part, was still following Tomlinson at the time of publication. (The Sun was first to report the news.)
Tomlinson’s social media move comes one day 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 meant to follow Tomlinson and Malik as they “embark on a road trip across America in a spontaneous adventure of reconnection, exploration and a lot of laughter,” according to a fall 2025 press release.
The former 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 future of the docuseries remains uncertain. Us Weekly has reached out to Tomlinson, Malik and Campfire Studios for comment.
Tomlinson and Malik met in 2010 when they both 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 following year in January 2016.
While speaking to Us in 2017, Malik confirmed that his relationships with the other group members had changed since the band ended, but insisted that everyone remains on a “civil leve.l”
“It’s not the way it used to be. Obviously, we were a lot closer because we were together the entire time, spending 24 hours a day in 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 keep in touch and check in with each other, not as much as we used to.”
Tomlinson told The Sun that same year that he and Malik had recently reconnected.
“My mum said, ‘You’ve got to get back in contact with Zayn. Life’s too f***ing short,’ ” Tomlinson recalled at the time, adding that pair “really care about each other.”
“I could always break the rules a little bit with Zayn,” he quipped. “It was that brotherly love. We will always have that love for each other.”
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 of the biggest groups of the 2010s after its five members — Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne and Zayn Malik — met as contestants on the reality television series The X factor in 2010. The five singers became a group at judge Simon Cowell’s […]
Tomlinson later stated that Payne’s passing had brought the former 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 is a closeness — it definitely feels closer than it was. But I think we’re all so busy, it’s hard to keep that consistency.”
The “Lemonade” singer noted that the relationships were different person to person. “Like, Niall — and hopefully he’d say the same about me — we could not exchange a text in a whole year and then go for a beer and literally be chatting nonstop,” he said.