Music fans can sometimes hold their idols to impossibly high standards but when those idols get into relationships, their partners can often bear the brunt of those fans’ jealousy and expectations. Take Harry Styles, for instance. It’s been rumored that he’s currently dating his Don’t Worry Darling director/costar Olivia Wilde, and she’s been taking some abuse online as some of Styles’ fans express their resentment on platforms like TikTok and Twitter. In Styles’ new cover story in Rolling Stone, he addresses those fans trying to cancel his (rumored) girlfriend.
“That obviously doesn’t make me feel good,” he says. “Can you imagine going on a second date with someone and being like, ‘OK, there’s this corner of the thing, and they’re going to say this, and it’s going to be really crazy, and they’re going to be really mean, and it’s not real.… But anyway, what do you want to eat?’ ” He also empathizes with any potential partner, saying, “It’s obviously a difficult feeling to feel like being close to me means you’re at the ransom of a corner of Twitter or something. I just wanted to sing. I didn’t want to get into it if I was going to hurt people like that.”
Wilde also gets a quote in the story, though, and puts the onus back on the fans to live up to their hero’s ethics instead. “What I don’t understand about the cruelty you’re referencing is that that kind of toxic negativity is the antithesis of Harry, and everything he puts out there,” she says. “I don’t personally believe the hateful energy defines his fan base at all. The majority of them are true champions of kindness.”
