One Direction’s Louis Slams Tabloid for Talking to His Estranged Dad

In the U.K., when you get famous, people crawl out of the woodwork to talk to the tabloid papers about you: even family members.  One Direction's Louis Tomlinson has slammed a British tabloid for printing an interview with his estranged father.

In the interview, Louis' dad Troy Austin tells the British paper The Mirror that he and Louis' half-sister Georgia just went to see One Direction for the first time, but they had to purchase their own tickets.  When he tried to go backstage, he says, he was told the band had to "rush off."

"It was a shame we couldn’t see Louis and tell him how brilliant he was," said Austin.  "But I know he and the rest of the lads are really busy.  Georgia was heartbroken, she’s his half-sister after all."

He added, " I haven’t been there for most of his life, so I understand I’m not one of [Louis'] main priorities.  He knows we were in the crowd and now I want to tell him what it meant to me to see him up there.  I cried buckets."

Austin lost touch with his son when he split up with Louis' mom, Johanna, when the singer was two.  The last time he saw him was two years ago, when Louis reached out to let him know he was going to be on the U.K. X Factor.   He tells the Mirror how he had to "watch from afar" during Louis' rise to stardom, though, because he was never able to contact his son.  "I love him to bits... I just hope he knows it," says Austin, who the Mirrorsays was not paid for his interview.  Instead, the tabloid says, it made a donation to charity in his name.

Louis' reaction to the interview was blunt: on Twitter, he wrote, "I'd like to start off the day by saying a big f**k you to 'the mirror' :) on a happier note huge love to all our fans, you keep us going!!"