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Louis Tomlinson And Harry Styles: Forget ‘Babygate’ Is ‘Larrygate’ Unravelling?

By Alan Ewart
Published on: 01:03 PST, Feb 5, 2016

Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles are without doubt two of the most talked about stars in modern pop music. Styles and Tomlinson make up half of pop sensation One Direction and have long been rumored to be a couple. One Direction fans are split into two very passionate factions when it comes to rumors of Louis and Harry’s relationship. In one camp sit the so called “Larry shippers,” those who believe that Tomlinson and Styles are indeed a couple. Other fans, probably in the majority, believe the opposite to be true. Those fans believe that the rumors about Harry and Louis are no more than an elaborate “fan fiction.”

Both sides of the debate have very vocal and investigative supporters who have examined countless news stories, interviews, videos and gossip about Styles and Tomlinson. Both sides of the argument have amassed impressive canons of “evidence” to support their views. In truth, both sides have very persuasive arguments about a Styles and Louis relationship and, as a result, it is virtually impossible to know which is true.

What fans do know is that Harry and Louis were very affectionate and supportive towards each other and that after the rumors about their sexuality emerged Tomlinson and Styles have been increasingly distant from each other.

Styles has always been portrayed as a “ladies man” something that infuriates many One Direction fans. Styles has been sexualized for as long as One Direction have been a band. The 2010 season of X-Factor in the U.K. had barely concluded before Styles began to be linked with a very long list of celebrity girlfriends. It started with Caroline Flack, a woman almost twice Styles age when he was coupled with her. Styles was just 17-years-old when the Daily Mail reported that Styles was spotted emerging from Flack’s home after a “sleepover.”

Even in those early stories a narrative regarding Styles was beginning to emerge. Let’s face it, a “sleepover” is something kids do with their friends, it’s not something lovers do.

As Styles was being built up as a “womanizer” fans saw him linked with numerous women, Taylor Swift, Nadine Leopold, Georgia Fowler and laterally Kendall Jenner, among hundreds of beautiful women that Styles has been linked with.

Tomlinson, on the other hand, was portrayed as enjoying a steady and long-lasting relationship with Eleanor Calder. Louis and Eleanor split last year and almost immediately the narrative around Tomlinson changed. Fans saw pictures of Tomlinson leaving clubs with a stream of women. Fans saw Louis portrayed as a drunk and increasingly as a womanizer.

The image of Tomlinson as a womanizer really took hold in July of 2015, when the Sun reported that Louis was to become a father after a relationship with L.A. stylist Briana Jungwirth. Many of Tomlinson’s fans were suspicious of claims that Louis was to become a dad.

Some fans believed that Briana was never pregnant, others thought hat she was pregnant but Louis was not the father. A third rumor stated that Jungwirth was acting as a surrogate so that Styles and Tomlinson could have a baby of their own. The crux of the matter is that many believe Tomlinson’s baby and Styles womanizing are devices designed by One Direction’s management team to keep Harry and Louis closeted.

It sounds totally beyond belief. Why would so much effort be expended keeping two pop stars closeted in this day in age. It defies logic and common sense. Surely, no-one in the Internet age has the power to web such a web of deceit as to be able to hide Styles and Tomlinson’s relationship from the world. Yet, the rumors about Harry and Louis persist, as strong as ever.

In the internet age information is easy and cheap to access. Social media, email leaks, networking sites and public records are more accessible than ever before, a wealth of information available at the click of a mouse. It seems common sense that it would be impossible to hide the truth about Harry and Louis if they were a couple.

Yet time after time we see celebrities and politicians exposed often after many years of maintaining a front. In the music business, X Factor boss Simon Cowell may be one of the few with the power and influence required to portray celebrities like Styles and Tomlinson exactly as he wants them to be portrayed.

As reported by Inquisitr last week, Cowell has a web of strong links, either directly or through Modest Management and HJPR, that is quite capable of influencing how Styles, Tomlinson and One Direction’s fans are portrayed in the media. Cowell has direct links through employees or former employees directly to three major sources of information about Styles and Tomlinson.

Anne-Marie Samson is perhaps the most obvious link as Cowell’s head of PR and crisis management is married to the U.S. editor of the Sun, a U.K. tabloid that has broken dozens of exclusives about One Direction. The Sun‘s Dan Wootton and Simon Jones of HJPR are close friends, as well, so it should not be too much of a stretch to imagine that news about Styles and Tomlinson can fairly easily be spun to fit a narrative approved of by One Direction’s management team.

That said, if Styles and Tomlinson are to be kept closeted then it is perhaps necessary to discredit those fans who believe they are a couple. Bauer media, another organisation that Cowell has close links to has been a major player in discrediting One Direction fans. As reported in the Telegraph in 2013, Bauer was the organization behind the Channel 4 documentary Crazy About One Direction in which fans were portrayed as crazy and obsessed.

In his now infamous article from last October the Sun’s Dan Wootton branded One Direction fans as deluded for believing that Styles and Tomlinson could be a couple.

“Ironically a group of 1D fans around the globe passionately believe in “Larry Stylinson” — the idea that Louis and Harry are in a secret gay relationship.”

“They claim that everyone from Cowell to the band’s management company Modest and publicists HJPR to journalists like me have been part of a giant cover-up of the romance.”

Suddenly, last night, Wootton posted a message on Twitter that had many Tomlinson and Styles fans in a bit of a spin. Wootton said, “It’s so sad that boy band members still feel the need to hide their sexuality. It’s 2016 people.”

There was no suggestion that Wootton was talking about Styles and Tomlinson, but he certainly set tongues wagging. Wootton could have been referring to Union J singer George Shelley who posted a message online on Wednesday in which he came out.

https://youtu.be/uAft5E4YUOc

Regardless of Woottons intention, fans of Styles and Tomlinson are now wondering if they might see the end of what would surely rank as one the biggest celebrity scandals of all time. For weeks now, Tomlinson’s fans have been praying for an end to “babygate” but perhaps fans are seeing the first crack in what could be termed “Larrygate.”

[Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP]

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