Niall Horan has recalled thinking he was “going to die” in a shopping centre at the height of One Direction’s success.
The Irish singer shot to fame alongside his bandmates Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles, Liam Payne and Zayn Malik when 1D was formed on The X Factor back in 2010.
They went on to become the biggest boyband in the world, before they announced an indefinite hiatus in 2016.
Speaking on the Unfiltered podcast, Niall admitted his One Direction fame turned him into a “recluse”.
The 29-year-old explained: “There were periods where you’d go out and you wouldn’t get five yards outside the door.”
“I remember one time I stupidly went to Westfield (shopping mall), in West London, and honestly, swear to God, I was like, ‘I’m going to die in here.
“‘I’m never getting out’. It was the fear of that which kept me in,” he confessed.
“I probably became a bit of a recluse in 2012, 2013, 2014… It was probably all in my head but I became a recluse because of the thought of going out, when I probably could have.
“There is a side of it where you’ve just come from zero to hero, the shock of it,” he said. “It’s a shock to the system and you’re trying to live a normal life.”
Thankfully life has calmed down a lot since then, and Niall lives a relatively normal life in London, where he’s mostly based.
“Now I live the most normal life I could possibly live,” he continued. “I can go to the shops and buy my own dinner and just general stuff.”
“There was a period where if someone said, ‘Do you want to grab a coffee?’ or ‘Do you want to go for lunch?’ I’d have said absolutely not.”
During a recent interview with Cosmopolitan, the 29-year-old also spoke about being “afraid to go out” during his time in One Direction.
Niall said: “I loved touring, but it was f****** crazy. We’d go to countries and never see a second of it – it was hotel, venue, plane, same again.”
“We couldn’t get out the (hotel) door. If you went out in the car, you’d be seen and chased (by fans).
“I understand why it was going on, but it gave me a thing where, when I came back to London, I would be afraid to go out.
“There was a period where I actually couldn’t,” he added.
