{"id":196439,"date":"2025-12-17T12:02:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T12:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/196439\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T12:02:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T12:02:12","slug":"louis-tomlinson-on-surviving-the-loss-of-his-mother-sister-and-one-direction-bandmate-theres-no-preparation-for-what-ive-been-through-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/196439\/","title":{"rendered":"Louis Tomlinson on surviving the loss of his mother, sister and One Direction bandmate: \u2018There\u2019s no preparation for what I\u2019ve been through\u2019 | Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Louis Tomlinson, 33, knows the challenges of his profession all too well, but he also knows what it\u2019s like to reach stardom as a 19-year-old. For just over five years, he was part of One Direction<\/a>, one of the most successful boy bands in history (they sold 70 million records during their time together), but he soon had to learn to fly solo. It\u2019s a challenge that has taken him almost a decade to adjust to, a period marked by doubts, losses, and self-discovery. Now, he says, he is living one of the happiest moments of his life. On January 23, he will release his third studio album, How Did I Get Here?, a clear statement of intent about what he wants his musical career to be.<\/p>\n

To promote this new chapter, the British singer embarked on a short tour of European countries, including Spain, where he reunited with his fans at an intimate event where they were able to hear the first five songs from the album. During his brief two-day visit to Madrid, Tomlinson met with EL PA\u00cdS to discuss his personal growth, his time in One Direction, and the burden of fame.<\/p>\n

Finding your place in the industry isn\u2019t easy, especially when you\u2019ve been coping with grief for years. Louis Tomlinson has experienced profound losses: his mother, Johannah, passed away in 2016 at age 43 from leukemia; his younger sister, Felicit\u00e9, died in 2019 at 18 from an accidental overdose; and his One Direction bandmate Liam Payne died in 2024 at 31 after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires<\/a>. Now, Tomlinson is leaving behind this dark chapter to begin a more positive one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve realized that these kinds of feelings are infectious,\u201d says Tomlinson. \u201cThe more I\u2019m enjoying it, the more the fans inevitably enjoy it. This whole record is a breath of fresh air, but it also has depth and emotion.\u201d <\/p>\n

Healing has been essential, particularly since he writes his own songs: \u201cIf you\u2019re feeling down, you\u2019re going to write emotional songs; and if you\u2019re feeling good, you\u2019re going to write nice songs. I had to wait for things to change for that,\u201d he explains. \u201cI\u2019m not someone who\u2019s ever down in the dumps or overly grumpy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tomlinson says he\u2019s felt imposter syndrome<\/a> since he first began in the music industry. \u201cI\u2019m always striving to get better. I never had any kind of musical education, I didn\u2019t play any instruments\u2026 and one day I auditioned for The X Factor and here I am now. Psychologically, it\u2019s hard to accept where you are.\u201d Hence, the title of his third album, posed as a question: How Did I Get Here? \u201cIt\u2019s more in awe of the situation. I don\u2019t care about the answer to that. I could overanalyze how I got here, but I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although One Direction gave him everything, he admits it wasn\u2019t always easy: \u201cIt was very intense. But that\u2019s the nature of doing something like that at a young age, when you have a natural resilience. I can\u2019t imagine going through that process now, and if I started now, it would be quite intimidating. There are many things, like fame, that I could do without; but I wouldn\u2019t be able to do my shows if I wasn\u2019t famous. So it\u2019s kind of tough shit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LouisLouis Tomlinson, at the premiere of his documentary, on May 13, 2023, in Los Angeles.Sipa USA (Juan Pablo Rico\/Sipa USA \/ Cordon Press)<\/p>\n

In 2015, after four albums, Zayn Malik<\/a> announced his departure from the group, a move that would mark the beginning of the end for One Direction. \u201cIt was a grieving process. I really struggled with the idea of moving on. It all came quite abruptly to me. I had never even considered the possibility of going out on my own. Now I realize how naive I was, because I thought we would be in One Direction forever. That\u2019s what made the idea of going it alone even more intimidating, because I was still unpacking the fact that the band no longer existed.\u201d <\/p>\n

One Direction gave him the visibility a project like his needed, but at a high cost. \u201cThe worst part has been being surrounded by success. It\u2019s like there\u2019s so much light in this job that you completely miss out on a very important chunk of life. It\u2019s about surrounding yourself with the right people, but also with normality,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

As a songwriter, he can\u2019t help but let his personal life inspire his music. \u201cI\u2019ve almost admitted defeat. I\u2019ve been in the public eye since I was 19, and in those circumstances, you don\u2019t have much privacy. I\u2019ve always leant into my honesty and vulnerability. My fans think they know me really well, and they do to a degree, but my albums are more of a chance for them to actually look inside my brain rather than just relying on their perception of who I am,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on how he has survived the deaths of his mother, his sister, and his One Direction bandmate Liam Payne, he says: \u201cYou have to live with these things. There\u2019s no preparation for what my family and I have been through.\u201d He adds: \u201cI\u2019ve been lucky with the way I was brought up. I don\u2019t struggle to talk about my feelings, and that definitely helps when you\u2019re going through this kind of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now Tomlinson just wants to focus on the release of his next album and his international tour in 2026. \u201cThis is the album I\u2019ve always deserved, and I\u2019m the artist I\u2019ve always deserved to be. There were tough times in One Direction that I struggled with. But now, having the opportunity to express myself individually, I\u2019m grateful that they coached me to this point.\u201d He\u2019s clear about what success means to him: \u201cBelieving I\u2019m worthy of those big stages. I know I am, but there will be concerts where I\u2019ll question it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tomlinson says he\u2019s made mistakes, but that he\u2019s earned from them. Every obstacle along the way has taught him lessons that he has already put into practice and that help him become the artist he is today. \u201cI read a quote that says \u2018sometimes you don\u2019t have time to figure out why the answer is no, but if your gut tells you no, you can work it out later and unpack that information.\u2019 But if you have a gut feeling about something, it\u2019s probably right. I would tell myself to trust my gut a little more.\u201d<\/p>\n

The interview ends, and he departs the luxurious hotel with his large team. To the disappointment of his fans, he doesn\u2019t make an appearance on the streets of Madrid.<\/p>\n

Sign up for our weekly newsletter<\/a> to get more English-language news coverage from EL PA\u00cdS USA Edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Louis Tomlinson, 33, knows the challenges of his profession all too well, but he also knows what it\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[104699,93,6437,61,60,34427,25683,278,25682,641],"class_list":{"0":"post-196439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-boy-band","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-harry-styles","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-liam-payne","14":"tag-louis-tomlinson","15":"tag-music","16":"tag-one-direction","17":"tag-pop"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}