Harry Styles has been spotted by fans in an unlikely setting: among the crowds gathered in Saint Peter’s Square in the Vatican as Pope Leo XIV was elected as the late Pope Francis’s successor.
Pope Francis died last month, aged 88. Pope Leo XIV, 69, will celebrate his first Mass at 11am (10am BST) as the leader of the Catholic Church, after more than two-thirds of the cardinals voted for him.
The news has prompted messages of congratulations from political leaders around the world, including US president Donald Trump, British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
More surprising was the appearance of Styles, 31. A photo emerged of the One Director star among the crowds wearing sunglasses, a blue jacket, and a grey baseball cap emblazoned with the message: “Techno is My Boyfriend.”
Sold by IDEA for £40, the hat has now sold out on the company’s website. Styles was previously spotted wearing the same blue jacket during a walk around London last month.
The Independent has contacted Styles’s representatives for comment.
Fans are, predictably, going wild over the photo, as one joked: “Little did the pope know he was waving to Harry Styles.”
“One thing about Harry Styles, he’s always going to accidentally serve cinema somewhere in Europe,” another wrote on X/Twitter.
Styles is known for enjoying visits to Italy. He was spotted in Rome last summer, where a fan filmed him browsing a local market and riding around the city on a bike.
“Anywhere but the studio,” another fan joked, alluding to the fact that Styles has yet to announce the release of any new music.
He released his latest album, Harry’s House, in 2022 – the same year he starred in the films Don’t Worry Darling and My Policeman – and concluded his mammoth world tour in 2023.
The swift two-day election of Pope Leo XIV marks one of the shortest conclaves in recent history.
Trump has celebrated the Chicago-born cardinal's papacy as a “great honour for our country”, having earlier drawn criticism after sharing an AI-generated image of himself dressed as the pope on social media.
However, right-wing media figures and MAGA supporters have since denounced his election after it was revealed that Pope Leo XIV had publicly criticised vice president JD Vance and expressed sympathy for immigrants and George Floyd.
Crowds had been waving flags and chanting “Habemus Papam” (Latin for “we have a pope”), since the traditional white smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel shortly after 5pm UK time on Thursday (8 May).
The new pontiff is the 267th Pope, becoming the religious leader of around 1.4 billion Catholics across the globe.
In his first words as Pope, the new pontiff told the adoring crowd: “Peace be with you”.
