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Tracee Ellis Ross is known for keeping her romantic relationships private, but over the weekend, fans started to speculate about one of the possible men in her life. The Black-ish actress ended up trending on Twitter on Monday following reports that she’s dating former One Direction singer Harry Styles.
These rumors emerged after a source claimed they had seen the pair out to dinner together.
“More Harry Styles tea,” the DM from the source in question reads. “Was as a p[l]ace in Laurel Canyon sat next to Harry Styles and Tracee Ellis Ross.”
“They were definitely on a date and their convo was pretty juicy,” the source continued. “This was maybe 6/8 months ago.”
When the person they were messaging replied, asking, “what were they saying?” the source replied, “they were asking eachother where the wildest place they’ve hooked up was, and if they should go to the bathroom together (in pg terms).”
They go on to claim that they couldn’t hear the answers from either party to the aforementioned question, but added, “they were definitely on a date/hooking up.”
While this may seem like a completely random coupling to a lot of people--especially considering the fact that Tracee Ellis Ross is 47 while Harry Styles is more than 20 years her junior at 26--the two actually do have a history together.
Back in December 2019, Ross guest hosted an episode of The Late Late Show With James Corden, in which she interviewed both Kendall Jenner and, you guessed it, Harry Styles. During their conversation, Tracee revealed to the audience that it actually wasn’t their first time meeting, as they were introduced to one another through Instagram.
“You know, the DMs,” Ross said on the show. “Harry started liking my pictures. I was like, ‘Who is this Harry Styles?’ And then I started commenting on your pictures. I was like, ‘When is he gonna perform in L.A.?’ And you were like, ‘This weekend. Do you wanna come?’ And I was like, ‘I do sir.”
Styles went on to confirm that Tracee did, indeed, go to his show that weekend, but neither of them gave any indication that they were romantically interested in each other. Ross said she had simply sought out the musician because she’s “obsessed with his songs.”
Since these rumors of a relationship emerged over the weekend, neither party has confirmed or denied the reports.
Back in 2017, Ross explained to ABC News why she’s so low-key about her dating life.
“I was born into a very public family and so I gained a relationship for myself to what is important … [and] what is sacred in my life,” she said at the time.“I don’t make a decision [that] ‘I will never talk about my relationships’ or anything like that. That’s certainly not a decision that I’ve made or anything like that, but there are certain things that are sacred to me that are not for public consumption. They are mine.”
Tracee hasn’t gone public with any of her relationships since she was linked to music executive Abou ‘Bu’ Thiam from 2011 to 2013. There were rumors earlier this year that she was also rumored to be dating Black-ish creator Kenya Barris earlier this year.
As for Harry Styles, he’s been linked to Kendall Jenner, Taylor Swift, and Cara Delevingne, among others.