Harry Styles didn’t want his reclusive lifestyle to continue as it was.
The Grammy winner explained that his free time is now much more liberating compared to when he was touring with One Direction—and it’s all thanks to a former girlfriend.
“In the early days, when I was in the band, so much of the hotel experience felt very locked-in,” Styles said during a joint Rolling Stone interview with Thom Yorke published Oct. 8. “When I’d be home, it felt like, ‘Oh, it’s not safe for me to be out.’”
However, the 32-year-old—who dated Taylor Swift, Kendall Jenner and Caroline Flack in the 2010s—learned to overcome the anxiety of being in public with some help.
“I had a girlfriend who was very outgoing, and she was coming to London and I was like, ‘Oh, if we just sit in my house for three days, she’s gonna think I’m nuts,’” he continued. “So we walked everywhere, and it was this realization for me: ‘Oh, it’s fine to be outside.’”
Styles added, “It kind of broke that thing. Now, it’s changed my life in such a big way, because it’s how you stay connected to the world.”
In fact, the “Watermelon Sugar” singer—who is reportedly engaged to Zoë Kravitz—now believes that being out and about is what fuels his creativity.
“I read something about walking being the artist’s kind of perspective,” he shared, “because you’re at ground level and you see things that you just don’t see if you’re driving everywhere.”
