Now that Harry Styles has moved past his feelings of shame around sex and his sexuality, he has no intention of trying to box it in.
The pop star opened up a bit about his romantic life for the June issue of Better Homes & Gardens, explaining the journey he’s been on in regard to his own relationship with his sexuality and destigmatizing it for himself. “For a long time, it felt like the only thing that was mine was my sex life,” he explained. “I felt so ashamed about it, ashamed at the idea of people even knowing that I was having sex, let alone who with.” He added, “At the time, there were still the kiss-and-tell things. Working out who I could trust was stressful. 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.”
And while there’s been a lot of speculation surrounding Styles’s sexuality over the years and pressure on him to publicly declare his preferences, he says he finds the whole situations to be totally bizarre and “outdated.” The musician said, “I’ve been really open with it with my friends, but that’s my personal experience; it’s mine. 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.”
In a 2019 interview with The Guardian, Styles had a very similar answer when asked outright whether or not he is bisexual. “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,” the “As It Was” singer replied. “It’s: who cares? Does that make sense? It’s just: who cares? Am I sprinkling in nuggets of sexual ambiguity to try and be more interesting? No…I just think sexuality’s something that’s fun. Honestly? I can’t say I’ve given it any more thought than that.”
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