Louis Tomlinson’s love for Harry Styles lives on in social media. The One Direction bandmates may not be as close as they once were, but feverish “Larry Stylinson” shippers are using a four-year-old tweet to remind others in the fandom of Harry and Louis’ legendary bromance.
According to Yahoo! Celebrity UK , Directioners continue to obsessively retweet a message that Louis Tomlinson sent to Harry Styles four years ago. It has received over 1 million retweets since it was posted in 2011, and it’s currently the second-most retweeted tweet of all time.
Always in my heart @Harry_Styles . Yours sincerely, Louis
— Louis Tomlinson (@Louis_Tomlinson) October 2, 2011
The most retweeted tweet is Ellen DeGeneres’ Oscar selfie , which currently has over 3 million retweets. Barack Obama’s “Four more years” re-election tweet is in third place with a little over 750,000 retweets.
Louis’ lovey-dovey message is an interesting relic of One Direction’s fetus days — fans would be shocked if Tomlinson sent such a gushy tweet to Styles now.
“Larry Stylinson” shippers played a large part in the demise of Louis and Harry’s super-close friendship. There’s a faction of the One Direction fandom that insists that Tomlinson and Styles are secretly gay lovers, and these fans spend a lot of time writing slash fiction or posting “evidence” that’s supposed to prove their relationship conspiracy theory.
“Larry” shippers carefully study concert footage and consume every 1D interview they can in their tireless search for “Larry” evidence. Once upon a time, they were rewarded with bromantic words like those Louis Tomlinson shared during an October, 2012, interview with Seventeen . Louis’ comment about his close bond with Harry Styles probably made a few ovaries explode.
“Harry is the guy I can really talk to about anything,” Tomlinson revealed.
Unfortunately, Tomlinson had previously said that the Larry Stylinson fanatics were ruining his relationship with Styles. According to the Mirror , Louis used a July, 2012, interview with Tumblr’s Storyboard to beg fans to stop spreading rumors that he’s gay.
“This is a subject that was funny at first but now is actually hard to deal with, as I am in a relationship,” he said. “Me and Harry are best friends. People look into our every move – it is actually affecting the way me and Harry are in public.”
Unfortunately, the “Larry Stylinson” shippers wouldn’t give up, and they eventually pushed Tomlinson to his breaking point. During a September, 2012, Twitter rant, Louis lashed out at them.
“Larry is the biggest load of bullsh*t I’ve ever heard,” he wrote, according to Sugarscape . “I’m happy, why can’t you accept that.”
Shortly after his Twitter outburst, Tomlinson told talk show host Alan Carr why the gay rumors make him so upset. According to the singer, he’s just annoyed with the fans who think that his long-term relationship with girlfriend Eleanor Calder is fake.
“I just think it’s really degrading towards her,” he explained.
However, some “Larry”-obsessed Directioners still refuse to listen to Louis. As the Inquisitr previously reported, the gay rumors resurfaced again this month after a fan claimed that Louis utters the words, “I’m gay, it’s pretty unfortunate” in a viral Vine video. However, this rumor was quickly debunked when an eyewitness came forward to say that Tomlinson was really talking about his birthday in the video.
Do you think it’s time for fans to stop shipping Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles?
[Image credit: Ian Gavan/Getty]