The singer, apparently unprompted, spoke about arguments people have in an effort to define his sexuality.
“Sometimes people say, ‘You’ve only publicly been with women,’ and I don’t think I’ve publicly been with anyone,” he told Rolling Stone’s Brittany Spanos. “If someone takes a picture of you with someone, it doesn’t mean you’re choosing to have a public relationship or something.”
Styles also nodded to the public fascination with his sexuality when discussing his other film due out this year, “My Policeman,” in which he plays a closeted gay police officer in the 1950s.
“I think everyone, including myself, has your own journey with figuring out sexuality and getting more comfortable with it,” he said of the period drama and its universal themes. “It’s not like, ‘this is a gay story about these guys being gay.’ It’s about love and about wasted time to me.”
The “As It Was” singer also said that fans criticizing his girlfriend online “doesn’t make (him) feel good.”
“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 said. “I just wanted to sing. I didn’t want to get into it if I was going to hurt people like that.”
