Niall Horan and Hailee Steinfeld met at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards. The two are mutual friends through Taylor Swift. They have not confirmed they are dating as of July 2018 but have been public about being in constant contact after meeting then briefly touring together during the late 2016 Jingle Ball concerts held in the United States.
The pair began regularly interacting on social media and posting updates about their spending time together. In late 2017, Niall and Hailee began to be spotted outside of work by fans, while friends, family and staff of both began following Horan and Steinfeld respectively. Louis Tomlinson followed Steinfeld on Instagram in December 2017. Niall and Hailee were spotted out on numerous dates together in early 2018. They began to spend time with each other’s families and friendship groups.
Addressing the growing speculation, Hailee stated: “I feel so lucky that my fans care enough about me to know what I’m doing every second of every day, but I think sometimes it’s hard for people to realize there are boundaries to a person’s life. I am a very private person, I love that I have the opportunity to share with them what I’m comfortable with and they’re there to listen and support me”.
In February 2018, Hailee was filmed touching Niall affectionately as they attended a Backstreet Boys concert together. In March 2018, Hailee performed at Niall’s “Flicker World Tour” with opening act Julia Michaels. In April 2018, Niall was filmed with his arm around Hailee kissing her cheek as they vacationed together in the Bahamas. In May 2018, BBC reported Hailee and Niall had blacklisted each other from being brought up in interviews. On 11 July 2018, Hailee introduced her song “Used To This” by saying she had fallen in love and was making room for someone in her life. The two then appeared publicly together leaving their New York hotel and shopping days later.
On August 13, 2018, Niall and Hailee were spotted kissing at Disneyland which confirmed rumors that they are dating.