Jade Thirlwall Reflects on Brief Romance with Harry Styles

Little Mix star Jade Thirlwall recently shared a glimpse into her brief teenage romance with Harry Styles. The pair, who both auditioned for The X Factor in 2010, went on a single date when they were just 16.

“We went on, like, one date,” Thirlwall, 32, revealed on The Louis Theroux Podcast. “He’d just been put in the band [One Direction]. We kept in touch, but as soon as they went on live shows, he stopped messaging me. I thought, ‘That’s it. He’s made it.’”

The singer, however, doesn’t hold any hard feelings. “I saw him a year later during The X Factor when I was competing with Little Mix, and he apologized, saying, ‘I’m really sorry I ignored you.’”

Theroux jokingly asked if Styles ghosted her, to which Thirlwall laughed and said, “Yes.” Despite the past, she spoke highly of the Watermelon Sugar singer, calling him “very talented” and “very lovely.”

Thirlwall’s fellow Little Mix member, Perrie Edwards, also crossed paths with a One Direction star. Edwards dated Zayn Malik for four years, with the pair getting engaged in 2013 before ending things in 2015.

Malik, now 32, reflected on his relationship with Edwards during a May 2024 interview with Nylon. “I was engaged at 21 and thought I knew everything, but I didn’t know much at all.” Malik later moved on with model Gigi Hadid, with whom he shares a daughter, Khai. Edwards, meanwhile, has a son, Axel, with soccer player Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.