Simon Cowell on One Direction reunion, reveals major 'regret'

Simon Cowell opened up about One Direction reunion and revealed his 'regret' about the band.

One Direction, consisting of members Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, and Louis Tomlinson, was formed on The X Factor when Simon Cowell signed them to a record deal in 2010. However, the band split in 2016.

Recently, on the podcast The Diary of a CEO, Cowell reflected on the success of the What Makes You Beautiful hitmakers.

Cowell said, "when I was talking to One Direction, I remember saying to them, ‘Our goal is for you to have enough hits that if you ever reform, that you can do stadium tours. That means you got to have about 10 hit singles."

During the podcast, Cowell was asked to share his thoughts on One Direction reunion to which he replied, "I doubt it," adding, "One thing I regret is I should have kept the name … I should have owned the name."

Since the name is owned by the band members themselves, Cowell is unable to use it for anything.

He added, "That’s the problem. Could have made an animation or whatever, but when you give an artist the name, it’s not yours — and that’s my only regret."

"If one of the band members, for whatever reason, say they don’t want to tour, it can stop the others [from] touring. So, if it was me who owned the name, it wouldn’t be a problem," he explained further.

Watch full podcast: