Harry Styles isn't as nice as you think

I met the pop star in the pub, and it was interesting.

Originally published in Esquire, May 2022

Harry Styles is angry. “That girl at the table behind us is taking secret photos of me,” he snarls. “If it carries on, I’ll have to teach her a lesson.”

We’re sitting at the bar in my local Wetherspoons. I had popped in to work on an article over a pint, and I could immediately tell that there was something unusual about the man to my left – also sitting alone. His coat looked expensive, his hair perfectly coiffed, his cocktail delicately nursed. He was looking intently at his phone. And from the abundance of hushed, frantic voices and pointing fingers behind us, I knew he was famous. He certainly looked familiar. Then it dawned on me who he was.

“Excuse me,” I said. “Sorry to interrupt your drink, but I loved you in High School Musical.” He rolled his eyes, then told me he was Harry Styles, not Zac Efron. A quick Google search informed me he was a singer, previously of the band ‘One Direction’, (the five-piece that came third in the 2010 series …