Niall Horan speaks out on Harry Styles' sexual assault

At the weekend, Harry Styles‘ fans were left horrified when a video clip of the star being sexually assaulted during a performance went viral on social media.

The One Direction star was one of the many musicians to take to the stage for the ‘We Can Survive’ concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Saturday [21 October], CBS Radio’s annual concert in aid of National Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Harry, who recently concluded the North American leg of his debut solo tour, was partway through a performance of fan-favourite ‘Kiwi’ when a fan grabbed his crotch.

In the clip, the 23-year-old singer is on his knees in front of fans when the grope occurs, with a clearly startled Harry quickly pushing the fan’s hand away as he jumps up, although his performance doesn’t falter.

Now Harry’s 1D bandmate, Niall Horan, has spoken out on the incident – branding the entire thing “odd” and “a bit strange”.

Speaking to HIT105, the Irish star said: “You’ve got one of your favourite stars in front of you and your reaction is to grab them by the nuts?

“I think it’s a little odd to be honest.”

Niall went on to reveal that he had been watching his friend from the side of stage when the assault took place, however, he didn’t notice that anything untoward had happened.

He added: “I was actually at the gig, standing side of stage, and I didn’t see it myself.

“But once a video’s there, then it goes viral…”

Explaining exactly what happened, an eye-witness said at the time: “Near the end of performing ‘Kiwi’, like usual, Harry went to the very front of the stage to get the crowd extra excited. He got down onto his knees and was shaking his arms to the music with his eyes closed.

“A fan then reached out and touched his crotch. He very quickly got up and appeared to also shove their hand a little bit to remove them faster.

“You can tell it freaked him out a little because as he continued performing, he avoided the section that fan was standing in.”

Harry has not publicly acknowledged the altercation, but fans were quick to trend #RespectHarry on Twitter after the video emerged.

Yahoo Celeb UK have contacted Harry’s reps for comment.

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