Prepare thyselves Directioners, your tears are inevitable.
Simon Cowell, the cynical manipulator of the pop charts that he is, has admitted that the end is nigh for One Direction. The X Factor head honcho has stated that he believes that the world's most popular boyband will release two more full length albums (one of which they're in the middle of right now) and then split up.
Speaking to the Daily Star, Cowell said: "Bands don't stay together forever. I think they will make at least two more albums together and they are in the middle of one right now."
Cowell, who has the lads signed to his Syco label, said that he doesn't think the eventual split will come as a result of Harry Styles dropping out of the group as has been touted in the press.
"No I don't think [Harry will go solo] for a while. Eventually they all will", he said.
One Direction are working with a host of songwriters on their forthcoming record, including Pharrell Willians (ch-ching!), Kodaline, Naughty Boy and The 1975.
If Harry were to leave the band it would likely be seen as the biggest pop catastrophe since Robbie Williams walked out on Take That in 1995, resulting in a spontaneous assembly of wailing teenage girls on Dublin's O'Connell Street and the formation of telephone helplines to assist mourners in dealing with their grief.