Niall Horan Drops Album Inspired by Hailee Steinfeld Breakup (And We're On Her Side...Still)

Gettyimages | Chris Polk/AMA2017

He's "On the Loose!"

Niall Horan dropped his second solo album Heartbreak Weather on March 13th. If you're not a Niall fan, you're probably wondering who broke his heart to bring upon such weather - and if our headline didn't tip you off already, his fans are almost positive it was that of Hailee Steinfeld.

But we're almost positive it was the other way around! While his followers' immediate reaction was to go after Steinfeld, Horan, however, admits he wrote the album from both of their viewpoints. In other words, his tunes about broken hearts are not only about his own.

Gettyimages | Chris Polk/AMA2017

Steinfeld and Horan were first linked together in December 2017 when he wished a "happy birthday to the loveliest person on the planet" via Instagram with the above photo. They were then seen getting cozy at a Backstreet Boys show in Vegas in February 2018 before she flew across the pond to be a special guest at the Brixton stop of his "Flicker" tour in March.

April brought a trip to the Bahamas and sharing a rental home in Atlanta for the U.S. Masters golf tournament. In May, they proceeded to party in Los Angeles and kiss backstage following her performance at BBC Music's The Biggest Weekend festival in Swansea.

After Niall flew to New York to spend his three-day tour break with Hailee in July and a mid-August shopping trip in Los Angeles, things got quiet.

Gettyimages | J. Merritt

Hailee did.

The Oscar-nominated actress and multi-platinum music artist dropped a little song called "Wrong Direction" in early January - as if that title doesn't speak for itself!

Her 2020 kickoff is packed with gritty lyrics ("I just wanted to believe that you were out sleeping alone"), and the video is even more raw - she's literally sitting in the fetal position inside of a bathtub, completely naked, and without makeup. Hailee also recalls the the self-centeredness of her former flame with this important line: "on my tip toes, but I still couldn't reach your ego..."

...Which brings us to Niall's recent revelation of his growth as a songwriter.

...or to quote another song from (queen) Hailee "something inside me's changed..."

Gettyimages | Shirlaine Forrest

"I used to be quite reserved and sometimes take the safe option," Horan recently told Glamour UK while promoting Heartbreak Weather. "Even in the last 18 months to two years, having a relationship, then that ending and then writing about that, when it been quite raw - I've learned a lot about myself off the back of that. Usually I would have written a quite selfish song.

When I sat down to write a ballad, it was always going to be sad and it's going to be about me."

Gettyimages | Frazer Harrison

"When I started to come up with the concept for this album, I was thinking about all the different aspects of that breakup, from other people's views, from the other person's view and the different phases of it."

He reiterated this during his trip to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

"There's all these different sides to a breakup. It's not all sad, all the time. When you break up with someone, it's not just like, I'm sitting at a window. I'm looking out. I'm feeling sorry for myself. It's raining against that window.

Sometimes you're like out on the town, throwing some shapes and you write songs like 'Nice To Meet Ya!'"

Neither Niall nor Hailee have made mention of the others's name, but seriously, they don't even need to - 18 months ago would put us almost exactly where we were when we stopped seeing them publicly in August 2018.

Whose side are you on?