Louis Tomlinson has opened up about the heart-breaking moment he found out his mother had terminal cancer. Johannah Deakin died in December following a battle with leukaemia aged 43. And in a candid interview with Observer Magazine, the One Direction star revealed that he was at Jamie and Rebekah Vardy's wedding when he found out the devastating news. "At [the wedding], of all places. Talk about something super-traumatic; my mum told me that she was definitely terminal," he shared.
Louis Tomlinson lost his mother Johannah Deakin to leukaemia last year
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Just a few days after his mum's death, Louis bravely appeared on The X Factor to sing his debut solo single, Just Hold On, with collaborator Steve Aoki. Louis, 25, went on to explain how his mum urged him to sing the song despite being severely ill. "I remember saying to her: 'Mum, how the [expletive] do you expect me to do this now?' And she didn't swear much, my mum. She'd always tell me off for swearing. And this time she was like: 'You've got to [expletive] do it, it's as simple as that.' It was football manager, team talk stuff."
Johannah left behind six other kids and was a grandmother to Louis' son Freddie
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Johannah left behind six other children - Lottie, 18, Felicite, 16, twins Daisy and Phoebe, both 13, and twins Ernest and Doris, both aged three. She was also grandmother to Louis' 17-month-old son Freddie. In January, the pop star spoke for the first time about the heartbreak of losing his mother. Speaking on SiriusXM Radio, Louis said: "It's not something that I feel 100 per cent comfortable talking too much about, but just quickly, when I first found out the news I kind of did want to throw the towel in. But it was my mum who said to me that I've just got to keep going. She told me very sternly that she wanted me to."