Over the past few years, Harry Styles’ personal brand has evolved from a shaggy-haired member of one of the world’s most popular boy band One Direction, to bonafide fashion icon – reminiscent of a 1970s rock star.
But when it comes to rumours and questions about his sexuality, Styles is happy to be asked, but he may not give you an answer.
During a recent interview with The Guardian, the 25-year-old was refreshingly open when the topic of his sexuality came up, touching on his clothing choices and what he really thinks when you ask him who he is attracted to.
“What women wear. What men wear. For me it’s not a question of that,” he said, when the topic of his 2019 Met Gala outfit came up. (Styles wore a black lace blouse, high waist black pants and a pearl earring to accompany the “camp” theme.)
“If I see a nice shirt and get told, ‘But it’s for ladies.’ I think: ‘Okaaaay? Doesn’t make me want to wear it less though,’. I think the moment you feel more comfortable with yourself, it all becomes a lot easier.”
“A part of it was having, like, a big moment of self-reflection. And self-acceptance…,” he added. “I think it’s a very free, and freeing, time.”
“I think people are asking, ‘Why not?’ a lot more. Which excites me. It’s not just clothes where lines have been blurred, it’s going across so many things. I think you can relate it to music, and how genres are blurring…”
The interviewer than asked if the same “blurred lines” applied to that of his sexuality, to which the Watermelon Sugar singer responded: “yep”, before wondering why people care so much about it.
“It’s not like I’m sitting on an answer, and protecting it, and holding it back. It’s not a case of: I’m not telling you cos I don’t want to tell you. It’s not: ooh this is mine and it’s not yours,” he continues. “It’s: who cares? Does that make sense? It’s just: who cares?”
The interviewer then turned to fan speculation that Styles had been dropping hints about his sexual orientation from his outfits, to performing with a rainbow flag and even the sleeve design of his new album Fine Line.
“Am I sprinkling in nuggets of sexual ambiguity to try and be more interesting? No,” he said.
“In terms of how I wanna dress, and what the album sleeve’s gonna be, I tend to make decisions in terms of collaborators I want to work with.
“I want things to look a certain way. Not because it makes me look gay, or it makes me look straight, or it makes me look bisexual, but because I think it looks cool. And more than that, I dunno, I just think sexuality’s something that’s fun. Honestly? I can’t say I’ve given it any more thought than that.”
Styles is also very aware that his job carries certain expectations when it comes to lines of questioning.
“[And] to complain about it, to say you hate it, and still do the job, that’s just silly. You respect that someone’s gonna ask. And you hope that they respect they might not get an answer.”
Styles has been spotted with some of the world’s most stunning women, including Keeping Up With The Kardashians star, Kendall Jenner.
During a stint hosting The Late Late Show, Styles and Jenner played a very funny game of “Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts”, where the celebrities asked each other personal questions and if they don’t want to answer, they have to eat the disgusting food in front of them.
When Kendall asked the singer something she was “dying to know” — which songs were about her from his previous album, Harry Styles — rather than answering, he opted to eat cod sperm.
Sounds like we’ll never know.
WATCH the hilarious game of Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts below.