Simon Cowell On One Direction After Band’s Fifth Album: 'They've Got Enough Hits Now'

After five years together, One Direction isn't exactly the same boy band that came in third on the seventh season U.K.'s "The X-Factor." It's members have four albums, half a dozen hit songs and several tours under their belts, but each of the bandmate's professional lives seems better then their personal lives.

Now that Zayn Malik has left the band and Louis Tomlinson is going to be a dad, what's going to happen to the other members - bandmates Niall Horan, Liam Payne, and Harry Styles? More important, what's going to happen to One Direction?

During an interview with The Sun Newspaper, producer and music mogul, Simon Cowell revealed that the band would be taking some time off next year after releasing their fifth studio album.

"In terms of the band, they've got enough hits now they can take some time off and do some other stuff they want to do," he explained to The Sun. "Then I hope they'll have a little bit of time apart and want to get back together again. It's a fun job, but it's absolutely their decision."

In March, Malik announced that he would be quitting the band, with desires to live his life as a normal young adult alongside his Fiancée Perrie Edwards. Cowell told the paper that after Malik quit the band the singer was dropped from his Syco label, which is a subsidiary of Sony

"Well, because it was his decision to leave the group and we hadn't asked him to do it, I felt my main responsibility was to the band. They didn't ask for it to happen either, and I did sign One Direction as a group," he explained to the paper. "But luckily within Sony there are a lot of labels who are really good. I had a feeling there was one particular label who would love to have him and they did."

"It enables them to treat him as a priority and us to carry on with what we're doing with the boys," Cowell continued. "It also means no one has any nerves about whether we're working harder on them or him."

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One Direction, Simon cowell
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