“I Was Getting a Haircut” — Harry Styles Explains His Papal Conclave Cameo
In May 2025, as white smoke rose over the Vatican to announce a new pope, fans spotted a very familiar face in the crowd at St. Peter’s Square.
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On Thursday, May 8, 2025, Pope Leo XIV emerged as the newly elected pontiff — and Harry Styles was unexpectedly there to witness it.
The pop superstar was seen standing among the pilgrims, incognito in sunglasses and a baseball cap reading “Techno is My Boyfriend”. Photos of Styles at the Vatican quickly went viral, and everyone was asking the same question: Why was he there?
Now, after months of speculation, Styles has shared the simple, hilarious truth.
In a BBC Radio 1 interview on Friday, he explained that it was pure coincidence: he happened to be getting a haircut nearby when he heard people cheering “Habemus papam!” — Latin for “We have a pope!”
Even his barber stopped mid-cut to marvel at the news.
Realizing he was only a short walk from the Vatican, Styles decided to join the excited crowd. “So we finished up, and I walked over,” he said. “It was wild”.
Styles doesn’t identify as Catholic, but he calls himself “more spiritual than religious,” He found the ancient ceremony surprisingly moving — an “amazing,” surreal experience he’ll never forget.
It turns out Styles was in Rome that week for work, not worship. The Vatican detour happened as he was promoting new music.
The very next day, he dropped a single called Aperture, ahead of his fourth album Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally., due out March 6, and fans joked that his hat’s slogan nodded to the album’s disco vibe.
In any case, the viral pope encounter only added to the buzz around Styles as he gears up for that album release.
Beyond giving Styles a great story to tell, the episode highlighted Pope Leo XIV’s crossover pop-culture appeal.
Leo, the first American pope, had captured the imagination of people far beyond the Church’s usual sphere — even rock stars were curious to see him.
Just six months after that election, in November 2025, Leo invited Spike Lee, Cate Blanchett and other Hollywood figures to a first-of-its-kind gathering at the Vatican, treating them as partners in dialogue between faith and film.
Events like these, and even some late-night TV jokes about the Hollywood Pope, show how Leo isn’t afraid to meet people where they are: whether on social media, at the movies, or even in a crowd at a rave.
For Harry Styles, stumbling into a papal election became a once-in-a-lifetime memory and a viral moment. For Pope Leo XIV, it was one more sign that faith and pop culture can intersect in joyful, unexpected ways.
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