Passion & Chaos

A few years ago, she was a broke teenager with a junkie boyfriend and no apartment; now she’s a breakout pop star playing arenas. But for Halsey, trouble is never far behind.

- Alex Morris

It’s one in the afternoon, and Halsey is getting buzzed on Veuve Clicquot rosé and telling me things that maybe she shouldn’t. Like the fact that the last time she was here in Central Park, she was with an ex- boyfriend who was coming down from heroin and just wanted to lie in the sun for six hours. Or that the original plan for today, dreamed up by her record label, was for us to go for a romantic boat ride. “And I was like, ‘Fuck, no,’ ” she says with a scowl. “‘I’m not going on a sailboat. I fucking hate boats. I’m not going to do that.’ It’s like a blind date, except that I’m not going to spend the entire time wondering if I’m going to be forced to have sex with you later.” Or that she has previously been detained by the police for drinking in the park – she ran, but left behind a backpack filled with schoolwork bearing her name – but has never yet been arrested. “I’m really good at getting out of stuff, it appears,” she says. She leans back on a picnic blanket and takes a deep swig from her Solo cup.