The toxic rift between One Direction stars: Insiders tell MOLLY CLAYTON secrets about Harry Styles’ lack of ‘loyalty’ and exactly what’s behind his recent transformation

Adorning the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, absolutely. Or perhaps taking pride of place on style bibles like Vogue or GQ. But in the week Harry Styles launched his new album, one certainly wouldn’t expect him to turn up on the cover of Runner’s World Magazine.

‘One of us,’ the hardcore health publication declared, beside a picture of a chiselled and fit looking Harry, bare-chested, squinting in the desert sun.

You might think it’s a surprising PR move to choose such a niche – uncool, some might say – publication in such a big week for the singer.

But it’s a deliberate tactic in how he wants to be perceived publicly; a marker of how much Harry has changed.

The one-time lothario of One Direction – exes include the late TV presenter Caroline Flack, Taylor Swift, Kendall Jenner and actress Olivia Wilde, a full decade his senior – Harry was known to party as hard as he collected women.

But at last week’s Brit Awards, which he opened with an energetic dance routine for his single Aperture, Harry left before the after-parties even began. And friends describe a total sea change in his behaviour not just limited to sobriety and early nights.

As reflected in the Runner’s World cover interview, Harry, 32, is a disciplined athlete, and is in near constant training for marathons – he ran the Berlin Marathon last year in under three hours and came a very respectable 6,010th out of 26,706 runners in the recent Tokyo race.

He also follows a largely vegan diet – and, in the quest for mental peace, has deleted all social media from his phone.

Why this turnaround?

Part of it, say friends, is down to his seven-month relationship with actress Zoe Kravitz, 37. A steadying influence, she has publicly spoken about how beneficial she has found therapy and sobriety, and is said to have encouraged her boyfriend to adopt a more ‘intentional’ lifestyle – one rooted in hot and cold plunge baths and meditation.

But there’s another factor which is more significant in Harry’s transformation, however – and that’s the death of his former band mate and close friend Liam Payne in October 2024, who fell from a hotel balcony in Argentina.

Aged just 31, he was reportedly under the influence of alcohol and drugs at the time.

Those close to Harry say the death had a seismic effect on him, and describe a man who now takes his health – both physical and mental – ‘incredibly seriously’.

Running, he said in the conversation with revered Japanese writer and fellow marathon runner Haruki Murakami which accompanied that fitness magazine cover, provided a space for him to ‘really be by myself’. It was, he said, his ‘processing place’.

Certainly, there’s been a lot to process. In an interview with DJ Zane Lowe last week, Harry admitted he struggles to speak about Liam’s death.

‘Full transparency, even the idea of talking about it, I struggle with that a little bit,’ he said.

‘It’s so difficult to lose a friend,’ he continued.

‘But it’s so difficult to lose a friend who is so like you in so many ways. I saw someone with the kindest heart who just wanted to be great. It was a really important moment for me in terms of taking a look at my life and being able to say to myself, “OK, what do I want to do with my life? How do I want to live my life?”’

Grief, though, affects everyone differently. And when mourning a loved one, those they have left behind generally either come together – or are torn asunder under the pressure of their loss.

Sadly, the latter appears to be the case for the four surviving One Direction members: Harry, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik.

Indeed, when Liam was buried, a month after his tragic end, they were reunited for the first time in eight years. But there was no photograph of them standing together at the funeral; they arrived separately, stood apart and left separately.

And that schism has continued since – if anything, they have become more isolated from each other, not less.

Notably, in his revealing interview with Zane Lowe, Harry made no mention of his former bandmates.

However, his new album, Kiss All The Time/ Disco, Occasionally, he does pay a subtle tribute to Liam. At his funeral one, of the floral tributes visible on the day was in the shape of a set of bowling pins, a nod to Liam’s favourite pastime.

And in the images Harry used to announce his new album, he wears a bowling pin-print shirt under a yellow jumper and red tie.

It has also been reported that when Brit Awards bosses asked the former bandmates to reunite at the 2025 ceremony at London’s O2 Arena as a tribute to Liam, the answer was an emphatic ‘no’.

One source told the Daily Mail at the time: ‘There’s no way they would get back on stage, even Liam’s death wasn’t enough’.

Zayn, Louis and Niall are said to be on equable enough terms – but real tensions exist with Harry.

And deep down, one bone of contention between them must be his solo success.

Of the band, which found fame on the 2010 series of the X Factor, Harry has made the most money – he has an estimated £225million fortune – has worked the media most adeptly, and has had the most commercial success.

This year sees his Together, Together tour, which starts in Amsterdam in May and boasts an unprecedented six nights at London’s Wembley Stadium. And his album released this weekend is expected to top the charts.

Tensions erupted with former bandmate Tomlinson when Harry released Aperture, the first single from his album, on the same day as Louis’s own album dropped.

It left Louis ‘blindsided’ – and in what is thought to have been a subtle dig at Harry, he wrote on X: ‘Going to need your help over the next few days to cut through the noise. Time to give this record the moment it deserves!’

One source told the Daily Mail afterwards: ‘Harry has no loyalty to Louis as it stands, and it’s safe to say this whole song release has p***ed Louis off. They are not friends. Yes, they will forever be bonded by the band, and all that happened, but that is in the past.’

Not even shared grief, it seems, can heal this particularly toxic rift.