At only thirty two years of age, Louis Tomlinson has made quite the life for himself—he has his dream job, a place all his own, a nice car, and all the people closest to him are seeing success of their own. The only big thing he's missing now is having the right partner and starting a family with them, although he figures he has plenty of time for that yet.
That is, until his best mate, Harry, comes to him with a proposition.
Or: what happens when you become your best friend's baby daddy.
Oh good lord. Boopsy. She really will never go away, will she? And yeah, the stalkers have absolutely always known Larry is real, but they just lie their asses off because they sign NDAs and want continued access.
I'm just thinking about how it's over seven years since we got a photo of H & L together and wondering why. The others from ot4 have all been spotted in some combination, so people accept that they're friends.
H & L could easily have been papped together out in a big group in London or at the same LA party even twice a year and this whole awful Harry Hates Louis thing that solos on both sides push would never have developed.
Please don't say 'they can't trust each other when they're together and would give themselves away' because they were fine pretending to be distant in group settings in 2013/2015. These men are in their 30s now. They know the game, and they can play it, and fans would all have been so much happier and less hateful to us Larries. 🪼
Hi, anon!
Don't worry, i'm not going to tell you that they can't behave around each other. I will tell you that they're closeted, that they have completely, if not opposing, images, they're not in a band anymore and they are on unsynchronised album/touring schedules meaning that when one is home the other one's away.
They also have a big, influential, and vocal larrie fanbase that would absolutely go off their hinges if they were pictured together. Being pictured together would also need to be balanced with something else to stay on status quo. That would mean more bearding, more stunting involving more pda, more yelling at larries on twitter calling us conspiracy theorists etc.
Also, what would their motivation be to be pictured together in public?
Do they need to convince themselves they're together? No.
Do they need to convince larries they're together? No, we already know.
Do they want to convince others they're together? No, quite the opposite.
Do they need the promo and attention on themselves? No, they've got stunts and beards for that.
Does H and L care about harries vs. louies in-fandom wars? No, not enough to make the neccessary sacrifices.
Do they care about larries? Yes, so they try to give us what they can while trying to balace the consequences.
So for them it's not neccessary to be papped together. It would bring more negative consequences for them than good consequences. The only ones wanting a pic are larries because we would be validated. We can be validated in other ways, ways that will not bring negative consequences to H and L. The umbro shirt and "i love it i hate it" are good examples.
Unless it will benefit L and H both in some way, i wouldn't hold your breath.
Some of Harry's quotes about work vs private life in British GQ (2013) and Rolling Stone (2022)
2013: Are you getting more used to being this famous? "I don't think you can ever get used to being this famous. I've learnt how to keep things separate or at a distance. I've nothing to hide. But seeing this as work, like a job, means I can take a step back. It's me right now in front of you and in the papers but it's not all of me. If you give yourself entirely to the business, you'd end up going mad. And I'm not mad. Not yet."
2022: "When I’m working, I work really hard, and I think I’m really professional. Then when I’m not, I’m not. I’d like to think I’m open, and probably quite stubborn, too, and willing to be vulnerable. I can be selfish sometimes, but I’d like to think that I’m a caring person. I’ve never talked about my life away from work publicly and found that it’s benefited me positively. There’s always going to be a version of a narrative, and I think I just decided I wasn’t going to spend the time trying to correct it or redirect it in some way. Sometimes people say, ‘You’ve only publicly been with women,’ and I don’t think I’ve publicly been with anyone. If someone takes a picture of you with someone, it doesn’t mean you’re choosing to have a public relationship or something."
2013: So you're not bisexual? "Bisexual? Me? I don't think so. I'm pretty sure I'm not."
2022: "I think everyone, including myself, has your own journey with figuring out sexuality and getting more comfortable with it."
2013: Do these rumours feel at all intrusive? "Some of them are funny. Some of them are ridiculous. Some of them are annoying. I don't want to be one of those people that complains about the rumours. I never like it when a celebrity goes on Twitter and says, "This isn't true!" It is what it is, I tend not to do that."
2022: Styles is not the most online person — he uses Instagram to look at plants and architecture posts, has never had the TikTok app, and calls Twitter "a shitstorm of people trying to be awful to people".
2013: "The only time it gets really annoying is that if you get into a relationship and you get into a place where you really like someone and then things are being written in the papers that affect them and how they see you. Then it can get annoying."
2022: "[about toxic corners of the internet and their treatment of people closest to him] That obviously doesn’t make me feel good. Other people blur the lines for you. Can you imagine going on a second date with someone and being like, ‘OK, there’s this corner of the thing, and they’re going to say this, and it’s going to be really crazy, and they’re going to be really mean, and it’s not real…. But anyway, what do you want to eat? It’s obviously a difficult feeling to feel like being close to me means you’re at the ransom of a corner of Twitter or something. I just wanted to sing. I didn’t want to get into it if I was going to hurt people like that."