Jade Thirlwall reveals Harry Styles 'ghosted’ her after 'secret date'

21 January 2025, 12:30

Jade Thirlwall has revealed she was ghosted by Harry Styles after a 'secret date'. Picture: Getty

By Jenny Medlicott

Jade Thirlwall has revealed that she and Harry Styles once went on a date back in their X Factor days.

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Mixers and Directioners, this is huge! Jade Thirlwall has revealed that she and Harry Styles were almost an item back in her X Factor days, and in an alternate universe it might have just happened.

Speaking on the self-titled 'Louis Theroux podcast', Louis asked the ‘Fantasy' singer about an old clip of the pair where Harry surprises Jade on the X Factor. He said: “There’s a clip on YouTube […] And Harry runs up and it’s like, surprise, and then you look fairly blasé about it.

“And the comments are like, 'love how Jade gives him the side eye' or something, not side eye, but it’s basically how seemingly unimpressed you are.”

Jade teasingly quipped: “I didn’t know he was going to be the Harry Styles, did I?”

Read more: Jade explains "confrontational" meaning behind her 'IT girl' lyrics
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Jordan Stephens and Jade Thirlwall. Picture: Alamy

And that's where her revelation got juicy, as the singer revealed that the pair actually went on a date as teenagers - but things never blossomed into a fully fledged romance because she was 'ghosted' by Harry.

When did Jade Thirlwall and Harry Styles date?

“I think we went on like one date when again, we were like 16 or something," Jade said. "Yeah, he’d just got put in the band and it was really funny because we kept in touch.”

She said Harry had only just joined the global sensation that went onto become One Direction when he went AWOL from her DMs. “The minute they went on live shows” Harry stopped replying to her messages, she told the podcast.

“He didn’t message me back and I thought, 'That’s it now, he’s gone, he’s made it.' And then I made it the next year, and then I saw him in the room after, and he was like, “I’m really sorry that I ignored you.”

Louis then joked: “He ghosted you.”

Jade first auditioned on the X-Factor in 2008 when she was just 16 years old. However, it wasn’t until 2011 during her third time on the show that she rose to fame when she joined Little Mix, who eventually went on to bag first place.

Despite the incident, Jade - who’s now dating to Rizzle Kicks’ Jordan Stephens - harboured no ill will towards Harry for the ‘ghosting’ incident.

“I was so young, it didn’t really matter. But he was always very, very lovely," she told the podcast host.

And after mentioning that Harry could be listening to the episode because he’s a "friend” of the podcast”, Jade continued to sing his praises: “Oh, really? Yeah. I mean. he’s got himself to where he is because he’s very talented and he’s very lovely, very charming.”

Jade launched the beginnings of her solo career last year with the release of her debut single ‘Angel of My Dreams’. And now she’s left fans are eagerly awaiting her full solo album after releasing three more singles, including certified bop ‘IT Girl’ in early January.

And we cannot wait to what she brings to the table because we just know it’s going to be full of bangers.