Harry Styles says his ex-girlfriend helped him overcome anxiety
Former One Direction star Harry Styles has credited a "very outgoing" ex-girlfriend with helping him overcome his anxiety about being out in public - admitting she helped him realise he could still get out and about despite his pop fame.
Harry Styles has credited a "very outgoing" ex-girlfriend with helping him overcome his anxiety about being out in public.
The former One Direction star has admitted he used to feel unsafe walking around his adopted hometown of London during the height of his fame in the boyband but he's revealed a former partner helped him overcome his fears and it changed his life as he now freely strolls around without bodyguards.
During an interview with Thom Yorke for Rolling Stone, the Radiohead frontman recalled bumping into Harry on the street in Rome, saying: "I was ... impressed that you were just walking down the street.
"I was like: 'Where's his security?' Because I mean, I know I can do it, but I didn't know you could do it. Is that a choice?"
Harry - who has previously dated Taylor Swift and Kendall Jenner - went on to explain: "I think in the early days, when I was in the band [One Direction], so much of the hotel experience felt very locked-in.
"When I'd be home, it felt like: 'Oh, it's not safe for me to be out.' Then I had a girlfriend who was very outgoing, and she was coming to London and I was like: 'Oh, if we just sit in my house for three days, she's gonna think I'm nuts'.
"So we walked everywhere, and it was this realization for me: 'Oh, it's fine to be outside.' It kind of broke that thing. Now, it's changed my life in such a big way, because it's how you stay connected to the world."
He added: "I read something about walking being the artist's kind of perspective, because you're at ground level and you see things that you just don't see if you're driving everywhere."
Thom went on to applaud Harry's decision not to hole himself up in a mansion surrounded by security guards, saying: "There are moments when you will feel vulnerable ... I've had that. So it's not easy.
"It's not an easy decision to make, but it's better than the alternative. I know people who got death threats, and then wouldn't leave the house and had security patrolling their house. You don't want that."
