Niall Horan felt like a ‘prisoner’ in One Direction and ‘struggled’ with fame as teen

Niall Horan, 27, shot to unimaginable heights of fame after auditioning on X Factor in 2010 as a 16-year-old before being put in the band with Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, and Liam Payne

Niall Horan says he “felt like a prisoner” at some points during his time in One Direction.

The singer, 27, shot to unimaginable heights of fame after auditioning on X Factor in 2010 as a 16-year-old.

His life changed forever when Simon Cowell put him in the band alongside Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, and Liam Payne.

The boys went on to become one of the biggest boy-bands of all time, so it’s safe to say their freedom was compromised.

In 2015, Zayn quit the group, with the rest of the band taking an extended hiatus the following year.

Niall Horan says he felt like a ‘prisoner’ in One Direction (Image: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
They then returned as a foursome, before eventually all going on to launch extremely successful solo careers.

Niall was asked if he ever felt like a “prisoner” during the height of the band’s fame during his appearance on Dermot O’Leary’s podcast People, Just People.

“A couple of times, yeah, because we were 17, 18, 19 for the first few years, and I struggled with it,” the Irish singer responded.

Niall was in the band with Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, and Liam Payne (Image: Getty Images)
He went on: “As you know, I have to be doing something all the time and the thought of just closing the curtain in my hotel room was just madness to me.

“I really struggled with the idea: ‘Why won’t you just let us out? We just want to go for a walk!’ But you can’t get inside the brain of a fan.

“Now I completely get it, but at the time we were like: ‘You’re our age, will you just let us out so we can walk down the street! You must understand!'”

Since the demise of One Direction, Niall went on to have a successful solo career (Image: Getty Images for MTV)
Shining a light on the band’s success, Niall recalled: “In the UK, it was nuts. We’d go and do signings here and there and bits and pieces and that was crazy.

“That was the first kind of side of it, you know, banging on car windows. Around the release of What Makes You Beautiful is when it really kicked off.

“We did a HMV run around the country, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, to do the signings and that was the first time I seen the madness.”