One Direction to SPLIT: Boyband decide to take 'extended hiatus of at least a year to focus on solo projects' after crunch talks... sparking an immediate online flood of teenage anguish

One Direction fans have been left devastated by the news that the group are planning to take an extended hiatus next year. The boyband - comprised of Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson - have reportedly decided to take time out from their hectic schedule to pursue their own projects after a non-stop few years of touring and producing albums. Since their first appearance on X Factor in 2010 (pictured top left) where they finished third, One Direction have become one of the biggest boybands of all time, enjoying remarkable success in the charts and touring all over the world. Even with the departure of Zayn Malik in March 2015, the band continued to have success with their first single as a four-piece, Drag Me Down, reaching no 1 on iTunes in a staggering 86 countries and accompanied by a video (bottom left) filmed at NASA's Johnson Space Center.