Social media was abuzz over the weekend after reports claim that Niall Horan has left One Direction. Rumors first sparked when Sugarscape and Yahoo Celebrity UK posted tweets that he is leaving the popular group.
Both websites tweeted on Dec. 28, "Niall has left One Direction!!"
The group's fans immediately reacted to the news and the hashtag #ReasonsNiallLeftOneDirection began trending. However, Yahoo Celebrity UK took to Twitter on the morning of Dec. 29 to set the record straight as they reveal that their Twitter account was hacked.
"Morning everyone. Just so you know, Niall Horan isn't in fact leaving 1D, our account was hacked last night. We repeat, Niall isn't leaving," they wrote. "And it would seem that we weren't the only ones either. @sugarscape was also hacked. Sorry for any upset this has caused."
Sugarscape tweeted, "So while we were fast asleep, it turns out some [expletive] hacked our account. VERY sorry for any heart attacks caused."
Meanwhile, Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson took the rumors in stride and reportedly had a good laugh over the false claims.
A source tells Hollywoodlife, "They were texting him to come back to the band and making joke decisions that didn't involve him. They all had a pretty fun laugh about it. They aren't breaking up and they wanted to treat the news as it was, a complete joke."
"Harry thought it would be funny if he had the whole band act like Niall was out of the band and started talking to him and treating him like he was in the past tense, they ran with it all day," the source adds.
A Columbia Records representative for One Direction also denied the rumors and told Billboard that there is "no truth to this rumor."
