What it's really like to date a member of One Direction

Harry Styles of One Direction and his ex-girlfriend TV presenter Caroline Flack. Photo / Getty Images

An ex-girlfriend of Harry Styles has revealed she was branded a "paedophile" and had voodoo dolls made of her after dating the One Direction star.

TV presenter Caroline Flack got together with Styles after they both appeared on The X Factor, and in her new biography she reveals the extent of the abuse she received when, aged 31, she started dating the 17-year-old singer.

In her book Storm in a C Cup, Flack writes: "I already knew he had a crush on me, he'd made it pretty obvious. He'd said it in magazines and he'd said it to friends.

"It was flattering and I found it amusing. He was a kind of cheeky man-boy with a captivating smile who got what he wanted."

Initially, Flack says she didn't think anything of the age gap, saying that in the entertainment industry "nobody asks what age you are".

She reflected: "I've never felt that I was much older than Harry anyway. I still feel 18 and probably act that way half the time - all those years in kids' telly probably didn't help.

"Although it was just a bit of fun we decided it was best to keep it to ourselves, as we were both working for Simon (Cowell). We were both single, we got on well and we had a laugh."

However, when their relationship became public knowledge, things took a dramatic turn for the worst.

In her book, serialised in The Sun on Sunday newspaper, she said: "It began to go wrong when Harry was pictured coming out of my house one morning. And once that was out, it was open season.

"After that anyone could say anything. In the street people started shouting at me 'paedophile' and 'pervert'. A One Direction fanzine had me as a voodoo doll, with arrows (pins) pointing to bits of my anatomy."

Flack also claims she had a brief romance with Prince Harry.

She revealed that she and the royal got close after meeting through a mutual friend, however they called off their relationship after it was made public.

"I knew my friend was friends with Prince Harry, and I'd never met him, so I thought, 'Oh, that's quite exciting,' and for a moment I perked up. So I was just sitting there and he arrived with a few others in tow and we all spent the evening chatting and laughing.

"[But] once the story got out, that was it. We had to stop seeing each other. I was no longer Caroline Flack, TV presenter, I was Caroline Flack, Prince Harry's bit of rough."

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