Jade Thirlwall has revealed that she was ghosted by Harry Styles when they were still teenagers.
Although Jade originally rose to fame on the eighth series of The X Factor, when she joined the future chart-topping girl group Little Mix, she previously tried out for the show on two different occasions.
This included in 2010, which was also the year a certain Grammy-winning pop singer auditioned as a soloist, only to wind up in the hit boyband One Direction.
Apparently, Jade and Harry’s paths crossed around this time, and she revealed on the latest instalment of Louis Theroux’s podcast that they even went on a date as youngsters.
“We went on one date when we were like 16 or something,” she admitted. “He just got put in a band and it was really funny because we kept in touch. And then the minute they went on live shows he didn’t message me back and I thought, ‘That’s it now, he’s gone. He’s made it’.
“And then I made it the next year.”
Once Little Mix was already established as another of the UK’s biggest pop acts, Jade told the podcast that she found herself behind the scenes with Harry once again, and even got an apology from him.
“He was like, ‘I’m really sorry that I ignored you’, she added, insisting: “I was so young it didn’t really matter. He was always very, very lovely.”
After more than a decade in Little Mix, Jade recently embarked on her solo career, releasing her debut single Angel Of My Dreams last year.
Both Angel Of My Dreams and recent release It Girl see Jade examining her time in the industry – and feature not-so-subtle digs at her former mentor Simon Cowell, who was also Harry’s label boss during his time in One Direction.