Harry Styles responded to questions about his sexuality, denying that he is “sprinkling in nuggets of sexual ambiguity” to be more interesting.
The “Watermelon Sugar” singer, 25, was asked about rumors of bisexuality in an interview with The Guardian on Saturday, December 14.
Styles prompted speculation in part because of his flamboyant sense of style — most notably when he attended the Met Gala in New York in May in a sheer blouse and a pearl earring.
The former boybander told The Guardian that fashion is not a question of “what women wear. What men wear.”
“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,’” he added. “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 continued. “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 …”
Styles — who has dated Taylor Swift, Kendall Jenner and, most recently, model Camille Rowe — has prompted more speculation about his sexuality with the release of his second album, Fine Lines, with fans claiming it contains hints in the lyrics and even the cover, which shares the same colors as trans and bisexual pride flags.
“It’s not like I’m sitting on an answer, and protecting it, and holding it back,” he told The Guardian. “It’s not a case of: I’m not telling you cause I don’t want to tell you. It’s not: Ooh, this is mine and it’s not yours. 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,” the former One Direction singer added. “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.”
“What I would say, about the whole being-asked-about-my-sexuality thing — this is a job where you might get asked. And to complain about it, to say you hate it, and still do the job, that’s just silly,” Styles added. “You respect that someone’s gonna ask. And you hope that they respect they might not get an answer.”
