Louis Tomlinson said he won’t be returning to BBC One’s morning news show BBC Breakfast, after he was asked about the grief of losing his mother and sister.
The former One Direction member had appeared on the show on Monday to promote his debut solo album Walls, which is out now. During the interview, Breakfast host Dan Walker and Louise Minchin asked Tomlinson about the grief he felt over the loss of his mother, Johannah Deakin in 2016 and younger sister, Félicité Tomlinson in 2019.
Tomlinson tried to redirect the line of questioning, saying: “I’ve just released my first album. That’s what we’re here for.”
At one point in the interview, Tomlinson was asked about his fractured relationship with former bandmate Zayn Malik.
Tomlinson told the host they were “proper going in” on him, and that he wasn’t “ready to have that conversation yet.”
Afterwards, when quizzed about a One Direction reunion, Tomlinson answered, “You’ve ticked them all off now, you’ve got; trauma, Zayn, and now we’re finally on this one.”
Woof.
After he left the studio, the singer took to Twitter to declare he “defo won’t be going on there again”.
Defo wont be going on there again Haha! Love to all my fans for always having my back
— Louis Tomlinson (@Louis_Tomlinson) February 3, 2020
Walker responded to the tweet directly, apologising that Tomlinson felt that way.
“It was nice to speak to you on #BBCBreakfast this morning,” he continued. “Can I ask what you are upset about?”
Tomlinson replied directly, “I’m lucky enough to have a creative outlet for me to talk about grief, this doesn’t however give you the right to talk about it for gossip purposes.”
He explained, “I was upset that you continued to ask me about my grief. It goes without saying how hard it is to lose both people so close to me. The least I ask is that you respect my decision of not wanting to be asked in interviews about something so painfull (sic).”
In response, Walker explained that he and Minchin had asked Tomlinson about a particular song on his album about his mum.
“We know it’s painful which is why we didn’t dwell on it. No intention to upset you or be ‘gossipy’ about it at all. That’s not our style on #BBC Breakfast.”
Following quite heavy backlash on social media, the BBC released a statement explaining their decision to ask Tomlinson the question.
“We wanted to cover all aspects of Louis’s life that have influenced his new album and feel the questioning was fair,” the spokesperson said.
