Harry Styles insists the members of One Direction don’t pit themselves against one another

And after each of the band’s members - including Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne, Niall Horan, and former member Zayn Malik - all released their own music, Harry has insisted there’s never been a rivalry between them, even though some outsiders “want to pit people against each other”.

Speaking to Variety magazine, he said: “When you look at the history of people coming out of bands and starting solo careers, they feel this need to apologise for being in the band. ‘Don’t worry, everyone, that wasn’t me! Now I get to do what I really want to do.’ But we loved being in the band."

“I think there’s a wont to pit people against each other. And I think it’s never been about that for us. It’s about a next step in evolution. The fact that we’ve all achieved different things outside of the band says a lot about how hard we worked in it.”

Harry’s comments come after he recently opened up about his time with the ‘History’ singers in a separate interview, where he also insisted he “loved” being part of the band.

The 26-year-old singer said: "I think the typical thing is to come out of a band like that and almost feel like you have to apologise for being in it. But I loved my time in it. It was all new to me, and I was trying to learn as much as I could.

"I wanted to soak it in. ... I think that’s probably why I like traveling now - soaking stuff up.”

When the ‘Golden’ singer went solo, he spent a lot of time “finding out what [his] sound was”, but found the process “really joyous and really free” after spending five years in One Direction.

He added: "I was very much finding out what my sound was as a solo artist. I can see all the places where it almost felt like I was bowling with the bumpers up. I think with the second album I let go of the fear of getting it wrong and … it was really joyous and really free."