One Direction's "break" might actually be a break up.

Grab some tissues and get ready to shed a tear, because according to Simon Cowell, One Direction’s hiatus may be more permanent than we first thought.

Speaking with Billboard yesterday, Cowell said, “I don’t know if it’s a hiatus or a breakup, to be honest. In a weird way, I don’t want to know. I don’t think they’ve had enough time to experience what it’s like not being in the group to really answer that.”

The “break”, which officially began at the start of this year, came following the release of the band’s fifth studio album, Made in the A.M. 

Maybe this One Direction cover of Hanson’s MMMBop was part of the problem? Post continues after video… 

“Whenever I was with them, we talked about [going on a break], and I couldn’t argue with them,” Cowell continues. “They had achieved so much in a short period of time, and I didn’t want them to get jaded.”

At the time of announcing the break, band member Louis Tomlinson stated that the time off would last for approximately 18 months.

It’s been a tumultuous year in the band’s five-year life, both personally and professionally.

In March 2015 Zayn Malik left for good, and is set to drop his debut solo album later this week.

“It was about denying the authenticity of who I was, and what I enjoyed about music, and why I got into it,” Malik said at the time.

“That was always there. It was one of the things that wasn’t going to go away, so I had to go away.”

In January this year, 24-year-old Tomlinson welcomed his first child into the world with stylist Brianna Jungwirth.

And last week Harry Styles was the latest celebrity to fall victim to hacking, with hundreds of personal photos of him, his family and his rumoured girlfriend Kendall Jenner being stolen from his mother’s iCloud.

Styles is also said to be using the hiatus to work on his solo career.

Only time will tell if the world’s most beautiful collective of human hair will return to one another and stages across the world.

For now, all we can do is #pray41D.