Behold the first celebrity power couple of 2021 — maybe.
The internet was abuzz on Monday as new photos surfaced of Harry Styles holding hands with Olivia Wilde while attending a wedding together over the weekend. The former One Direction heart-throb is reportedly dating the ‘Booksmart’ filmmaker, who recently directed Styles in her sophomore feature, ‘Don’t Worry Darling.’
According to a People magazine source, Styles, 26, began dating Wilde, 36, “a few weeks” before they were photographed at his manager’s wedding in Montecito, California. The viral paparazzi photos see the two entertainers, hand-in-hand, wearing masks and formal attire.
Representatives for Wilde and Styles did not immediately respond Monday to The Times’ requests for confirmation.
Last year, Styles joined the stacked cast of Wilde’s upcoming thriller, ‘Don’t Worry Darling,’ also starring Florence Pugh, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Nick Kroll and Chris Pine. And in December, Variety reported that the budding director recast Styles in a lead role after firing embattled actor Shia LaBeouf, who was recently accused of physical and emotional abuse by singer FKA twigs.
While making history in November as the first man to appear solo on the cover of Vogue, Styles lauded Wilde’s work on the teen comedy ‘Booksmart’ and told the magazine he was “very honoured” to accept a part in her latest feature. In turn, Wilde praised Styles’ big-screen debut in Christopher Nolan’s 2017 war drama, ‘Dunkirk.’
Wilde was also among the many who rallied behind Styles after conservative pundits Candace Owens and Ben Shapiro shamed the ‘Treat People With Kindness’ singer for wearing a ruffled Gucci dress on the Vogue cover.
“... I did a little victory dance when we heard that we officially had Harry in the film,” Wilde told Vogue, “because we knew that he has a real appreciation for fashion and style. And this movie is incredibly stylistic. It’s very heightened and opulent, and I’m really grateful that he is so enthusiastic about that element of the process — some actors just don’t care.”
The frenzy surrounding Wilde and Styles comes months after the former ended her seven-year-plus engagement with ‘Ted Lasso’ star Jason Sudeikis. The ‘Saturday Night Live’ alum proposed to Wilde in 2012, and the pair split in November. They have two children together.
After Styles and Wilde sparked relationship rumours with their wedding outing, several noted on social media that the same kind of attention was not devoted to the ‘Watermelon Sugar’ hit maker and Lizzo when the two singers were seen holding hands at the 2020 Brit Awards back in February.
“So lizzo and harry can hold hands but when olivia and harry do y’all assume they’re dating?” one person tweeted on Monday along with the photo receipts. “make it make sense.”
“So your [sic] telling me that when Harry holds hands and cuddles up to Lizzo it’s nothing but when he does the same to Olivia, a white and smaller girl, he’s automatically dating her,” wrote another. “Mhm ok.”
An official release date has yet to be announced for Wilde and Styles’ ‘Don’t Worry Darling,’ which went into production in the fall of last year.
