For thousands of women, it’s the million dollar question. What does Harry Styles look for in a woman?
Well, he once told me he likes his girlfriends to be ‘quirky’.
It was during an interview to promote One Direction‘s album in 2011 that I had my opportunity to ask him.
‘I love a bit of cheek, and I don’t like girls to look the same as other girls,’ he said, adding that he doesn’t have a preference between blondes and brunettes.
‘I wouldn’t not go out with a girl because of her hair colour,’ he said magnanimously. As for what he doesn’t like, he said: ‘A bad attitude, like when they are rude…’
All of these years later and Styles, 31, has found a new girlfriend who definitely ticks the cool and clever box – actress, singer and film director Zoe Kravitz.
Harry Styles and Zoe Kravitz in Rome last weekend
Like his previous girlfriend Olivia Wilde, 41, Kravitz, 36, is older than Styles – though only by five years to Wilde’s ten.
While the romance is in its early days, those close to Styles hope she might be ‘the one’ to help him fulfil his dream of settling down after dating numerous celebrity women.
‘Zoe is just Harry’s type,’ said one friend. ‘She’s cool, edgy and really, really interesting.
‘He likes a woman he can have a chat with, he likes to go a bit deep, and Zoe is extremely clever and successful. Like him, she is very much into her work and is ambitious. They are well matched and apparently get on very, very well.
‘While Harry might be one of the world’s most sought-after men, he would like to settle down and even become a father at some point.
‘There have been many girlfriends over the years but, despite them all being beautiful and successful, none of them have lasted.
‘Harry might be super famous, but underneath it all he is pretty down-to-earth, so celebrity girlfriends who are high-maintenance aren’t always right for him. But Zoe is chilled.’
The couple’s romance was first revealed when a photograph of them walking arm-in-arm in Rome appeared on social media last weekend.
Kravitz, the daughter of American singer Lenny Kravitz and The Cosby Show star Lisa Bonet, jetted out to the Italian capital where Styles spends much of his time. She had just attended the Paris premiere of her latest movie, Caught Stealing.
Another friend added that they didn’t expect to be ‘outed’ as a pair quite yet as the relationship is in its infancy, but said they are ‘having a lot of fun together’.
Styles with his previous girlfriend Olivia Wilde, 41, whom he dated from 2021 until 2022
And yesterday it was revealed that Styles and Kravitz also met up in London ahead of their romantic Rome break, after her film’s London premiere.
Onlookers spotted them ‘kissing like teenagers’ at Rita’s bistro in Soho.
A fellow diner told The Sun newspaper: ‘Harry and Zoe were tucked away in a corner in Rita’s and were snogging like teenagers. They seemed really into each other and didn’t seem to care if anyone saw them kissing. It was definitely a date.’
While it’s not known when the romance started, Styles and Kravitz have been moving in the same friendship circles for more than a decade.
In 2014, they were seen together in the same VIP area at a Coldplay concert in the US, though Kravitz was with her then boyfriend, the actor Chris Pine.
Of course, Kravitz is a great friend of Styles’s ex-girlfriend, Taylor Swift, with whom he enjoyed a three-month fling between 2012 and 2013. She is also a close friend of British model and actress Cara Delevingne, who was linked to Styles back in 2013.
Then there’s model Kendall Jenner, who Styles dated in 2013 and 2015-2016, and who also shares a friendship with Kravitz.
The best link of all, however, is that Styles is a good friend of Kravitz’s father Lenny.
Styles was linked to model Cara Delevingne in 2013
In 2021, Lenny revealed: ‘We met years ago on the road and became friendly, [he’s a] really sweet guy and he was evolving from his group to what he’s doing now, solo.’
‘It’s nice to see him in the suits and the boas and all this stuff that I did back in the 1990s,’ he added of Styles’s fashion choices.
Styles, who is reportedly worth £225 million, has been single since he split from Canadian actress Taylor Russell in April 2024.
The pair dated for a year and, at the time, friends told me they had never seen him so smitten. In fact, they had hoped that Russell, a model and actress who made her name in Netflix sci-fi series Lost In Space and is a face of Spanish fashion house Loewe, would be the woman he settled down with.
Both down-to-earth characters at heart, Styles and Russell would shun chauffeur-driven cars to zip around London on rental Lime bikes.
They were also seen swimming together in the Hampstead Heath Ponds, just a stone’s throw from Styles’s London mansion. But it was not to last.
Most recently, Styles was spotted with producer Ella Kenny at Glastonbury in June. They were filmed kissing in a VIP backstage bar at the event at Worthy Farm, Somerset, but that didn’t go any further.
Styles’s relationship with Olivia Wilde lasted the distance for around two years after they met in 2020 while filming Don’t Worry Darling, which she directed.
Emily Ratajkowski was pictured kissing Styles in 2023 in Tokyo
Styles was regularly seen at her Los Angeles home and even formed bonds with Wilde’s two children with her ex-fiance, Ted Lasso actor Jason Sudeikis – a son named Otis, 11, and a daughter named Daisy, eight.
But Wilde and Styles split in November 2022 amid claims that Styles had kissed fellow British screen star Florence Pugh on the set of Don’t Worry Darling. Sources told me at the time that it was a ‘tricky issue’ for Styles and Wilde to navigate.
They were also said to be struggling to agree on which side of the Atlantic they would make their home. Styles had found it a ‘wrench’ to be away from the North London enclave where he was – and still is – immersed in a £30 million project to convert two 18th-century homes into a super-mansion.
After splitting from Wilde, he was seen kissing sultry American model Emily Ratajkowski on the streets of Tokyo. Not just a pretty face, she has a successful podcasting career and acting credits and a book to her name, but her ‘moment’ with Styles did not translate into anything longer-lasting.
Notoriously, Styles also dated the late TV presenter Caroline Flack when he was just 17 and she was 32.
They met after he appeared on ITV reality show The X Factor where he was put together with Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and the late Liam Payne to form One Direction. She was the host of spin-off show The Xtra Factor.
Caroline, who took her own life in February 2020, was trolled so viciously that the relationship came to an end.
There was also French-American model Camille Rowe, who Styles dated from mid-2017 to July 2018. She is said to have inspired his hit solo album Fine Line.
If Styles’s ex-girlfriends have been famous, so, too, have Kravitz’s ex-boyfriends. In fact, he might finally have met his match in terms of the calibre of previous partners. She was most recently linked to US actor Noah Centineo, and before that she was engaged to Magic Mike hunk Channing Tatum.
She has also enjoyed romances with rapper Drake, Gossip Girl actor Penn Badgley and movie star Michael Fassbender. In 2019, she married American actor Karl Glusman, but this ended in divorce just 18 months later.
Like Styles, Kravitz – who was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2022 – is ambitious.
After starring in TV dramas such as Big Little Lies alongside Nicole Kidman, and the 2018 science-fiction action film Kin, she decided to go behind the camera, making her directorial debut in 2024’s Blink Twice, a film she also co-wrote.
Styles, meanwhile, is no longer just a singer, but a brand.
Some wonder whether a deep-rooted devotion to David Bowie and Mick Jagger is what has prevented Styles from settling down. Both of his icons were known for being free spirits and were rarely with the same women for long during the early stages of their careers.
Yet one source who knows Styles well simply says he is taking his time because he believes a long-term partnership is a huge commitment – and he wants to get it right.
‘When it comes to women, Harry takes things very seriously,’ says the source.
‘It would be a little unfair to say that he is in a rush to settle down, but he would like to find The One.
‘Three out of five of One Direction are dads – it’s just Harry and Niall who aren’t – but his friends often say he would make the best dad. Lots of Harry’s friends have kids and he is enormously close to them and loves their company.
‘Zoe definitely has more of a chance at settling down with Harry than any of his exes. She is exactly what he wants in a woman and they are just so similar.’
Meanwhile, another friend swoons: ‘We just want him to settle down, get married and have babies.’
