Olivia Wilde opens up about the Harry Styles dating backlash that had fans fuming

Olivia Wilde says outrage over her 10-year age gap with Harry Styles was loud, but their romance stayed sweet and mostly untouched by the noise.

The 10-Year Gap That Launched a Thousand Tweets

So here's the rundown: Wilde, now 42, dated the former One Direction heartthrob (he's 32) for close to two years before calling it quits in late 2022. She sat down to chat on the 'Call Her Daddy' podcast and spent quite a bit of time dissecting the weirdly aggressive reaction the public had to, well, them existing as a couple with a decade between their birth certificates.

In her own words:

'People were f***ing pissed... I think that it also had a lot to do with the kind of parasocial relationship people had with, have with him, which is a burden that is very weighty and not something I envy, and he carries it with grace. I think that is an enormous responsibility that all those stars have to carry, that's f***ing impossible.'

Essentially she's saying: loads of Harry fans feel they know him, so when he started dating someone in the public eye—especially someone with a bit more life experience—it brought out, shall we say, some strong opinions.

Trying to Fathom the Fury

If you thought Wilde might have figured out what the outrage was actually about, think again. She still doesn't know. To quote her from the interview, 'Oh, man. I don't know. It really did upset people, though... It was crazy. I don't know how much I understand it yet. That's one of the factors that I never really felt like I fully, I don't know.'

Behind Closed Doors

The odd thing is that, according to Wilde, day-to-day life with Styles was mostly low-key and, as she puts it, 'so sweet and so beautiful and really, actually, very domestic and kind and lovely.' The public's noise apparently didn't filter into their private lives—which, fair play, because that must have taken a bit of effort when everyone and their nan had an unsolicited opinion.

A Relationship Under the Microscope

• Wilde says she and Styles 'existed in this, like, little bubble' and the outside criticism didn't pierce that—something she calls a 'miracle'.
• Every time she turned up to a Styles gig and had a bit of a dance, people decided it was their job to sling insults ('Oh, bitch. You slut.'—her words, not mine).
• The sense she got was that people were...mad at their happiness, as if enjoying themselves in public was an act of aggression.
• Both have since moved on. The outrage, however, seems to still hang about whenever their names get mentioned together.

There we are, then: a fairly run-of-the-mill celebrity relationship, except it somehow turned into a case study in public overreaction just because of a 10-year age gap and a lot of over-invested fans.