Fans of One Direction have been living on the edge, worrying about a possible breakup ever since the band recently announced an indefinite hiatus to be taken after the release of their fifth album this year. But Wednesday, X Factor judge, and the man behind the band’s formation, Simon Cowell, eased some minds by telling Yahoo Celebrity UK that he doesn’t necessarily feel doom and gloom for the boy band. 

“I don’t know if they’re going to split up to be honest with you,” Simon said. “Even though they were young, that was a grueling schedule and after a while I could see they were exhausted so when they asked how I felt about it I said for them to do whatever they want.

“I’ve known for a while that they were going to take 2016 off, and they had to on their workload.”

Simon added, “I said, ‘Make your own decisions, I hope you stay together but you’ve got to want to do it for yourselves.’ But they’re smart guys and they’ll work it out.”