Simon Cowell on 1D: 'I want them to stay as a band, but it's their choice'

Music mogul Simon Cowell has opened up about One Direction's impending hiatus and revealed that he doesn't want them to start planning their next ventures yet as it's important to just take a break and experience that for a while.

Speaking to Capital FM this evening, Cowell explained that 2016 was always meant to be their 'off' year: "They always said 2016 they wanted some time off, and I said 100% do it. This has been 5 years non-stop, I’m amazed they did it for so many years.”

"I always said to them, no one should be making decisions for them. The minute we signed them to a record deal, they kind of did it all themselves. They're incredibly loyal, they're really nice people and of course they deserve some time off. They've got to make their own decisions [...] we'd love for them to stay as a band, but like I said it has to be their choice. When you've got time off, you look at things in a different way."

"I think Louis, I know, wants to be an A&R guy - run a label - because he was always going to be good at that. I haven't gone into too much detail with the others... when you actually take time off, you've got to take time off. Every one of them can do what they want. I think they'll miss each other. They are the nicest, nicest guys."

Watch a recent interview with 1D here: