Things in 2025 that I simply did not expect: Jade Thirlwall from Little Mix spilling vintage lore on One Direction alum Harry Styles. But let me tell you, I’m sat!
Jade went on The Louis Theroux Podcast and revealed the ultimate teen pop drama throwback — her brief romantic encounter with Harry Styles back when they were both wide-eyed X Factor hopefuls.
“We went on like one date when we were 16 or something,” she shared.
But apparently the romantic rendezvous was short-lived as Harry completely ghosted her the moment One Direction hit the live shows.
“The minute they went on live shows, he didn’t message me back,” Jade recalled.
Her teenage response was peak relatability: “I thought, ‘That’s it now. He’s gone. He’s made it.’”
But apparently it’s all water under the bridge, as Harry actually apologised a year later when Jade’s band, Little Mix, blew up the following year on X Factor.
Jade later bumped into Harry when One Direction was invited to perform on the show that year.
“I saw him in a room after and he was like, ‘I’m really sorry that I ignored you,’” she laughed.
When Louis Theroux bluntly asked if he’d ghosted her, Jade’s response was a mood: “Yes. But again, I was so young it didn’t really matter.”
I, for one, don’t know if I will be able to forgive Harry for robbing us of the potential double dates we could have seen of him, Jade, Perrie Edwards, Zayn Malik.
Despite the teenage communication fail, Jade still speaks about Harry with nothing but respect, calling him “very talented” and “very lovely”. She truly is a better woman than me.
Jade also opened up about how the X Factor house (where contestants lived during the show) was absolute “chaos”.
“Me and Perrie especially — we’d never left home before. Then suddenly it was like here’s a bit of money, go and do a shop. So I’d come back with like a Cadbury’s chocolate mousse, and be like that’s my dinner for the week,” she shared. And TBH I still be doing that with my adult money.
She also revealed that there was an intervention held over a stole lasagne and that “everyone was struggling mentally”.
“It was the dawn of Twitter (now X), so it was the beginning of trolling and all that stuff, so we were having to adjust to that. The hours were crazy.”
She does go on to say she’s “conflicted badmouthing” the show because it also “changed [her] life for the better”.
“I got put through the mill on that show, but ultimately it meant that I moved out of my hometown, I could support my family. Not everyone is as lucky as that I suppose when you come off the show,” she continued.
So there you have it – a slice of pop culture history proving that even global superstars aren’t immune to the age-old art of teenage ghosting and buying mousse for dinner is truly an universal experience.
Celebs — they’re just like us!!
