Niall Horan has spoken out about his swift rise to fame in a new One Direction autobiography, revealing that his success came at the cost of a normal childhood.
The Mullingar lad was aged just 16 when he auditioned for The X Factor and was subsequently chosen as member of boyband One Direction.
In a new interview, the singer said that his solid upbringing proved essential since he achieved global fame with fellow band members Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles and Liam Payne.
“My childhood was cut short by The X Factor, because One Direction took off and I never really got the chance to finish school or do my exams or anything like that. After the first audition, I packed up everything in my life in a bag. What I didn’t realize at the time was that, when I was stuffing clothes into the little suitcase, that was pretty much me leaving home for good,” he explained.
“Sometimes I wonder how my childhood prepared me for this madness. On one hand, there is no preparing for this, certainly not on the scale that the band has grown to but I can see how certain things in my early years have helped me.”
