What One Direction are doing now from Harry Styles in Hollywood to a loved up Liam Payne

The heartthrobs are all grown up and exploring fatherhood and new careers
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The Weekender

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Adulthood sneaks up on you. You think you have a handle on your tween stars, then they go and do a shoot for Another Man magazine in which they look astonishingly grown-up and you feel bewildered.

This week the internet was noisily aghast when erstwhile One Direction star Harry Styles shared three cover images from said magazine. In one he wears a Fair Isle knit, in another a military coat, and in the third he is staring and straightforwardly handsome.

Women started sounding each other out tentatively about whether it was finally “OK to fancy Harry Styles?”

The magazine is released today, and contains an interview with Styles, conducted by Sir Paul McCartney. It is intended to denote his move from hoarse not-very-bad-boyband member to Serious Actor: he will appear in Christopher Nolan’s war film, Dunkirk, alongside Kenneth Branagh and Mark Rylance.

It seems highly unlikely that he will return to the band. 1D are officially on “hiatus”, though realistically it looks like the group are doing a slow fade out, presumably in the hope that the frenzied, overwrought chorus of Directioners — the name given to the group’s fans — do not notice. Obviously, they will: this month there was a noisy squawk when one noticed that the band had removed the “future events” section from their website.

One Direction has taken five new directions: this is 1D 2.0.

The movie star in the making

Harry Styles

For a long time Harry Styles looked like a child dressed up as a Seventies dandy, adorned in the sort of tattoos you’d get in temporary transfer form in a 10th birthday party bag. It took a while to notice he had evaporated from the party scene — to be fair, he looks like most other men you see in Hackney on a Thursday night. But we heard he was shooting the Nolan film.

Finally, this week, he shared the three Another Man covers, captioned simply with the date of the magazine’s release. The shoot and interview were leaked online yesterday, a day early.

One Direction - In pictures

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Notable sections of the article include positioning Styles as a man in the McCartney tradition. The gnomic musician advises Styles to “be true” to himself and “do what you think is right”. They go on to talk about growing up in Liverpool and Cheshire respectively, strange fans, and “creative experiences”.

Picking the self-consciously alternative Another Man over something more obvious such as GQ or Vanity Fair suggests that Styles is getting serious about being taken seriously. The shoot showcases him in a number of different looks — the military jacket, tailored houndstooth, a striped jersey, brooding monochrome — which is exactly the sort of thing you’d insist on if you were an ex-teen idol trying to overwrite the last five years of stage outfits and to show a casting director you are chameleonic. Will we ever see Harry Styles, Oscar- winner?

The literary lover

Zayn Malik

Unlike the rest of the lads Malik has, of course, been going it alone for more than a year. He released his debut album in March this year and has been a cover star of magazines including ELLE, Paper and — this week — Highsnobiety, in which he discusses his loathing of the word “celebrity”. “I hate the word because then you somehow automatically think that label makes you superior.” It has been read as a veiled moan about his time in 1D.

Malik has also spoken publicly about his anxiety issues, which forced him to cancel gigs earlier this year and sent teenage girls into paroxysms of empathy.

But of course, what people care most about is his relationship with supermodel Gigi Hadid. One fashion editor reports that when the pair turned up at the Versus show at London Fashion Week last week the normally inscrutable fashion crowd actually stood up to observe the couple. Malik credits Hadid with helping him to handle anxiety, and recently called her an “inspiration”.

Hadid shares pictures of them, captioned with heart emojis, and was hounded by furious Styles fans for sharing an old ELLE cover of Malik’s this week — they were adamant that in doing so she was trying to overshadow Styles.

The sports tourist

Niall Horan

Niall Horan has put down the microphone and picked up the golf clubs. This week he appeared in the Celebrity Ryder Cup alongside the likes of actor Bill Murray and Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps. He enjoyed his first day, tweeting “Loved it. Tired now. Have a beer, watch more golf on TV and sleeeep!”

He’s taken enthusiastically to the sport, which is pretty confusing for his army of fans, who understand it as something their grandfathers do on a Sunday. In July he shared the cover of industry mag Today’s Golfer with Team GB gold medal-winner Justin Rose. They’re tight: when Rose won gold he sent Horan a selfie, which he tweeted excitedly.

Otherwise he’s hanging out with members of an unexpected posse that includes former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen, former Disney star Demi Lovato and sports presenter Kirsty Gallacher (who is soon to be aunt to Russell Brand’s baby — keep up) and loving life. In June he tweeted: “Happy as a pig in shite.” It was retweeted 100,000 times.

The romantic

Liam Payne

Liam is trying really hard to have an edgy solo career: he recently tweeted a picture of some decks, distorted using a fisheye lens, captioned “hard at work”, with a musical note emoji. So it’s a shame, really, that all anyone cares about is whether or not he’s got our Cheryl pregnant. Payne and Cole confirmed their relationship in February, sharing a shirtless picture of themselves in bed on Instagram. Since then they’ve also shared pictures of outings on private jets and at home doing face masks, like love’s young, vain dream.

The pregnancy rumours started last week when Payne changed his Twitter biog to “the luckiest man in the world”. Suggestible fans decided this meant he is having a baby. To be fair, the rumour was sort of consolidated by a paparazzi picture of Cheryl’s mother in Mothercare buying a pregnancy pillow — though for all we know she has a cousin expecting. The couple are yet to comment.

The father figure

Louis Tomlinson

On the other hand, Louis Tomlinson — the one who looks a bit like Liam Payne — has definitely had a baby, with former not-really-girlfriend Brianna Jungwirth. Unless, of course, you believe the forensic research that went viral this year which argued that the baby is fake and the story a juicy, elaborate distraction. Those who posit this theory flagged pictures they claim had been Photoshopped and suggested that the baby is just a lifelike doll. It sounds mad, but by the third image you’re cocking your head in interest — by the sixth you’re WhatsApping your mates about it. Either way, he’s maintaining he has a real child.

Post 1D he’s also popped up as a judge on America’s Got Talent and visited the set of Peaky Blinders, grabbing Helen McCrory for a pic. He played in charity football game Soccer Aid, opposite his bandmate Niall. He’s foiled hackers who shared his number online, and flirted with buying a race car. It’s sort of like the weirdest gap year ever.

So will we ever see the boys back together? Styles’s words sound quietly final. “I loved [being in the band] but I’m enjoying trying new things. I’ve been asking myself: ‘What do I want to say?’” Millions are on tenterhooks.

Follow @StandardEnts and @phoebeluckhurst for more news.

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