James Arthur defends his friendship with Louis Tomlinson amid backlash

Earlier this year, one of the biggest celebrity spats seemingly came to an end when One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson shared a photo of himself with X Factor winner James Arthur.

Even though Louis had publicly supported James throughout his X Factor journey back in 2012, the star fell victim to James’ cruel words after he won the show, with the controversial singer calling Louis a “little b*tch” and dismissing One Direction as a “marketing product”.

At the weekend, James posted another photo of himself with Louis on his Instagram page and he was quickly inundated with comments from dubious fans who accused James of using Louis for publicity.

There was also speculation that the pair’s new friendship was nothing more than a marketing stunt, with many followers quick to point out that both men are signed to Simon Cowell’s SyCo record label.

Now James has been forced to defend himself, taking to Instagram to insist that their friendship is legit.

After receiving a whole load of criticism on his selfie with Louis, a fed-up James commented: “You all need to get your facts straight here, Louis and I are friends.

“We had our differences four years ago when we were both very different people and I have held my hands up for my mistakes and apologised profusely for them.

“Louis is a very intelligent grown man and I can tell you he would never be manipulated into doing anything he didn’t want to do for the promotion of another artist and I think you all underestimate his character by suggesting that he would.

“I do not need promo, I’m an artist that has worked very hard travelling around the world performing shows and have had a number one single in the UK and America on my own merit.

“You all claim to be supporting your idol but this is just unnecessary hate that doesn’t help anybody.”

He followed up with a video of his song playing on the radio in the US alongside the caption: “Just got to Orlando and this is on when we get in the van #number1hotAC”.

“#nopromostuntsjusthonestmusic”.

Still, One Direction fans weren’t entirely convinced by the comment, taking to Twitter to continue to share their thoughts on the friendship:

The singer previously admitted that Louis’ fans still hadn’t forgiven him for the nasty comments that he made earlier in his career, saying at the time: “They still hold a grudge even though we’ve made friends and stuff.

“They were like, ‘We’ll never forget what you did!'”

Discussing how he and Louis managed to salvage a relationship, James continued: “We had a phone conversation to clear the air. He got to see that I was a different person and that helped us bond.

“We’re just a couple of chavs really. We’re both common, we’re both football fans, we love the same bands and he’s a sound lad.”

Louis is yet to publicly comment on his and James’ new friendship.

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