Harry Styles opens up about sexuality and intimacy in the new Better Homes & Gardens. (Yes, you read that right.) The former One Direction singer, whose third solo album Harry’s House is out next month, reveals how he started to work through issues related to dating and love at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“For a long time, it felt like the only thing that was mine was my sex life. I felt so ashamed about it, ashamed at the idea of people even knowing that I was having sex, let alone who with,” he reflects.
Styles’s private life has been tabloid fodder ever since One Direction launched to superstardom on The X Factor in 2010. For years, the singer had anxiety about saying the wrong thing in interviews, or that any personal transgressions would be broadcast to the world. The boy band’s contract even had a “cleanliness” clause, meaning it would be void if it was breached. When he signed his solo contract, it didn’t include such requirements and Styles burst into tears: “I felt free.”
“At the time, there were still the kiss-and-tell things. Working out who I could trust was stressful,” Styles adds. “But I think I got to a place where I was like, why do I feel ashamed? I’m a 26-year-old man who’s single; it’s like, yes, I have sex.”
Styles, now 28, has been dating Olivia Wilde for a little less than two years. He’s clearly not eager to let his guard down too much as the singer didn’t talk about their relationship. (In fact, she’s not even mentioned in the article.) Before going public with his Don’t Worry Darling director, the internet had a field day buzzing over Styles’s sexuality. While promoting his sophomore album Fine Line, the singer wore dresses and embraced a more feminine style. Last year, he launched his own beauty line, Pleasing. But Styles calls speculation over his sexuality “outdated.”
“I’ve been really open with it with my friends, but that’s my personal experience; it’s mine,” he noted. “The whole point of where we should be heading, which is toward accepting everybody and being more open, is that it doesn’t matter, and it’s about not having to label everything, not having to clarify what boxes you’re checking.”
If Fine Line coincided with Styles’s sexual freedom, then Harry’s House is more about intimacy (crooning about making “pancakes for two”) and being home “in terms of a headspace or mental well-being.”
“It sounds like the biggest, and the most fun, but it’s by far the most intimate,” he says.
