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Harry Styles & Olivia Wilde Address ‘Cruelty,’ ‘Toxic Negativity’ Over Their Relationship

Harry Styles and Olivia Wilde are addressing the online hate the actress-filmmaker has received since the pair started dating nearly two years ago. And considering just how intense and vitriolic the comments have been, you might be surprised at how positive they both still feel about Styles’ fans.

In an intimate interview for the 28-year-old pop star’s Rolling Stone cover story published Monday (Aug. 22), both he and Wilde discussed the section of his fan base that has made a hobby of posting TikToks and tweets mocking everything from Wilde’s 10-year seniority over her boyfriend to her dancing, which they often capture on video whenever she’s in the audience at one of Styles’ concerts.

“That obviously doesn’t make me feel good,” the “As It Was” singer said, taking care to differentiate between the fans who direct hate at Wilde, and his fanbase as a whole. “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?’ ”

“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,” he continued. “I just wanted to sing. I didn’t want to get into it if I was going to hurt people like that.”

Wilde, who started dating the Grammy winner after he starred in her latest directorial project, Don’t Worry Darling, is also able to see the difference between the fans who harbor hostility against her and the rest of Styles’ fanbase, whom she called “deeply loving people.” “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 said.

“I don’t personally believe the hateful energy defines his fan base at all,” she added. “The majority of them are true champions of kindness.”

Styles also acknowledged criticism that’s often directed at him personally by people who allege he’s ‘queerbaiting,’ or disingenuously marketing himself to profit off of the LGBTQ community. Such comments have resulted from his affinity for making daring, gender-bending fashion decisions — painting his nails, wearing a dress on the cover of Vogue, for example — while only ever being in confirmed relationships with women.

“I’ve never talked about my life away from work publicly and found that it’s benefited me positively,” said Styles, who’s previously asserted that he doesn’t feel the need to publicly label or explain his sexuality. “There’s always going to be a version of a narrative, and I think I just decided I wasn’t going to spend the time trying to correct it or redirect it in some way.”

“Sometimes people say, ‘You’ve only publicly been with women,’ and I don’t think I’ve publicly been with anyone,” he continued. “If someone takes a picture of you with someone, it doesn’t mean you’re choosing to have a public relationship or something.”

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