How Harry Styles conquered the world with kindness

At just 28 (his birthday is today), musician and actor Harry Styles has become the UK’s biggest star. His biographer, Sean Smith, reveals the secret of his success

Harry Styles, more rock star than pop star (Mike Coppola/Getty)

It didn’t look promising at the beginning of 2020. Like millions of others, Harry Styles endured a wretched start to the year as Covid began to affect all our lives. On Valentine’s Day, of all days, he was mugged near his north London home. He was surrounded by a group of men who demanded to know what he had on him, one of them wielded a knife. Styles handed over a wad of cash and then ran off before they could grab his phone. He reported it to the police but the men were not found.

The next day was even worse. Caroline Flack was found dead in her Stoke Newington flat. She had hanged herself. Styles’s brief relationship with her when he was still a teenager led to an ongoing mistrust of the tabloid press who had referred to Flack as a “predatory older woman” leading to her being shouted at in the street and abused online.