Harry Styles Says He Felt “Ashamed” About His Sex Life When He Was Younger

These days, 28-year-old musician Harry Styles is a bit of a sex symbol. It seems like both girls and guys love him equally. He appeals to both demographics, but he wasn’t always comfortable with this.

During a recent interview with Better Homes and Gardens magazine (because of course) Styles talked about how he used to be very secretive about his life. He didn’t want anyone else to know who he was having sex with. Heck, he didn’t even want people to know he was sexually active.

I felt so ashamed about it, ashamed at the idea of people even knowing that I was having sex, let alone who with. Working out who I could trust was stressful.

But a couple years back, he dropped the shame. He looked at himself in the mirror when he was 26 and asked himself why he felt ashamed, “I’m a 26-year-old man who’s single, it’s like, ‘Yes, I have sex,'” he concluded, and from there, he never looked back.

The style icon, who has been dating actress Olivia Wilde for over a year, also told the outlet that he has no plans to publicly discuss his sexual orientation – something that fans have been speculating over for years.

He says that his friends and family know where he stands, and that’s all he really cares about. “It’s my personal experience,” he explained. So it doesn’t appear he’s 100% comfortable yet.

Or maybe he’s just trying to avoid being hit with a label, something he seems very against…

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.

That’s the dream. It would be nice if in the future those things didn’t matter as much. I’m not sure we’ll get there, but hey, it doesn’t hurt to have hope.