Harry Styles ignores Cheryl and Liam Payne's baby news making cryptic posts on Instagram

Harry Styles chose to ignore his One Direction bandmate Liam Payne's announcement that he had become a dad for the first time.

While social media was flooded with well wishes for Liam and girlfriend Cheryl who confirmed last night (March 25) that they had welcomed a son, the 23-year-old did not acknowledge it.

Instead, at around the same time that Liam shared the first picture of him cradling his baby boy, Harry uploaded a picture of a white box on Instagram without any caption.

He then followed it up with a second and third post of exactly the same thing.

The first attracted 579k likes, the second earned 600k and the third got the thumbs up more than 657k times.

His followers on Twitter were advised: "I just posted a photo," along with a link to the first post.

After he changed his Twitter profile picture to the same blank space his dedicated fans were well and truly baffled.

Ed Sheeran recently did similar by posting a blue square and using it as his profile picture to announce new music, could that be the same case here? It still does not explain the timing though.

Since One Direction went on hiatus at the beginning of last year, Harry has kept a relatively low profile busying himself with cutting his hair off and starring in his as-yet unreleased first film.

Desperate to know the meaning behind his odd postings online users begged for answers.

"Omg I think the single is coming out soon. I'm so excited," guessed one.

A second declared: "Something big is going to happen."

While a third concluded: "This is just a white box".

Elsewhere, other celebs were keen to congratulate happy couple Cheryl and Liam.

Khloe Kardashian wasted no time in liking Liam's cute snap with his tot as Britain's Got Talent Judge Alesha Dixon commented: "Congratulations darling, so happy for you both".

Liam's family also voiced their joy online with his mum Karen Payne telling her followers: "I'm the happiest grandmother!"