Harry Styles has said he thought having therapy “meant that you were broken” before experiencing the benefits for himself.
Styles, 28, whose new album Harry’s House is set to be released later this month, has reflected on finding fame at a young age and spoken candidly about his experience with therapy.
In an extended interview with Better Homes and Gardens magazine, Styles revealed he reluctantly began therapy around five years ago, telling the publication: “I thought it meant that you were broken.”
He added that, at the time, he was conscious of not becoming a celebrity cliche and “wanted to be the one who could say I didn’t need it”.
In a nod to the theme of his upcoming album, Styles said therapy had given him the tools to “open up rooms in himself” that he was previously unaware of, and learn to challenge his tendency to “emotionally coast”.
Styles went solo in 2016 after he and his One Direction bandmates embarked on an indefinite hiatus, and has since had a number one album and two number one singles in the UK, according to the Official Charts Company.
Styles added: “I think that accepting living, being happy, hurting in the extremes, that is the most alive you can be.
“Losing it crying, losing it laughing — there’s no way, I don’t think, to feel more alive than that.”
The Grammy-award winner also spoke about fellow singer-songwriter Billie Eilish and reflected on finding fame at such a young age in the same way as Eilish, 20.
Styles first gained recognition at the age of 16, after auditioning for the The X Factor.
Of Eilish he said: “She was so much younger than I am, and, when I was in the band, we were always the young guys.
“When I did my first solo thing, I was still like the young guy. I’m not like an old man now, but she’s just a different generation.”
He also shared the “liberating” moment he realised that constantly trying to be “the young thing” would not make him happy.
“You can’t win music. It’s not like Formula One,” he told Better Homes and Gardens.
“I was like, in my lifetime, there will be 10 more people who burst on to the scene in that way, and I’m only going to get further away from being the young thing.
“So, get comfortable with finding something else that makes you happy. I just found that so liberating.”
The complete extended interview with Harry Styles can be found in the June issue of Better Homes and Gardens or online at
BHG.com/Harry
.