Rob Rinder, who is a real criminal barrister, is best known for hosting the reality courtroom drama Judge Rinder, as well as having appeared on shows Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity Gogglebox. He stated that he had “the worst social car crash ever” when he bumped into the former One Direction member Harry Styles at the gym – but didn’t recognise him.
Rob Rinder opens up on the incident
Speaking with The Telegraph, the TV judge was asked about his worst encounter with another celebrity.
“Nobody looks at anyone at my gym, so I just thought there was a homeless girl running next to me. And then I had a moment of epiphany: it was Harry Styles,” he said. He continued, praising Styles’ evolution into a “real artist”.
“When I subsequently saw him I got strangely starstruck. We ended up involved in a conversation and all I will say was that it was the worst social car crash ever. He hugged me because he needed to make it stop. It was like an act of social euthanasia.”
“I don’t suffer from an especially dialled-up version of narcissistic personality disorder, despite being on telly, but the other day somebody sent me pictures of myself when I was 17 and I look like a mash-up of Little Lord Fauntleroy and Kim Jong Un.”
