Louis Tomlinson’s stepdad, Dan Deakin, took to Twitter Tuesday, December 13, to share a message from the One Direction alum’s late mother, Johannah Deakin, who died of leukemia December 7.
“Hi, it's Dan. Johannah asked for me to send this afterwards,” Dan wrote from Johannah’s Twitter account. “She wanted to thank you all, and to let you know that you have been amazing right from the start.”
He added: “You changed Louis' life, but also her life. Your support now is as strong if not stronger than ever. So from Johannah one last time, thank you for everything xxx.”
Dan confirmed Johannah’s death to Us Weekly in a statement December 9. “It is with immeasurable sadness that Deakin’s family said goodbye to Johannah in the early hours of Wednesday 7th December 2016,” he wrote. She was 42.
On December 10, Tomlinson, 24, expressed his gratitude to those who have stuck by his side in the wake of his mom’s passing. “All the support has been incredible! Let’s do this together tonight,” the former boy bander tweeted ahead of his highly anticipated solo performance of his new single “Just Hold On” on The X Factor Saturday night.
The lyrics to the Steve Aoki–assisted track are particularly poignant given Tomlinson’s loss. “Oh, until it’s all been said, it’s not over until your dying breath,” the dad of one — he shares son Freddie with ex Briana Jungwirth — sang. “So what do you want them to say when you’re gone? That you gave up or that you kept going on? What do you do when a chapter ends? Do you close the book and never read it again?”
“Where do you go when your story’s done?” he continued. “You can be who you want or who you’ll become. Oh, if it all goes wrong, oh, darling, just hold on. The sun goes down and it comes back up. The world still turns no matter what.”
Hours after the performance, Tomlinson thanked his fans for making the moment memorable. “That was harder than I ever imagined. I want to thank everyone around me and all of the amazing fans out there that made that so special!” he tweeted.
