Boy who tried to give Megan Fox a rose speaks out years after incident
"It's gone viral quite a few times, and I avoid it like the plague. My friends all tag me, and I'm like, 'delete, delete, delete'."
For more than a decade, Harvey Kindlon was reluctant to talk about the A-lister meeting that put him in the spotlight. But after meeting dozens of other celebrities and launching a career for himself in event hosting, he's finally decided: "This is our time."
The 25-year-old, from London, went viral in 2009 when Megan Fox allegedly 'ignored' his efforts to give her a rose while she was in the UK to promote Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
Advert
Kindlon was among a group of fans and paparazzi trying to get her attention, and as Fox walked past the crowd, Harvey leaned towards her to offer her a yellow rose.
Fox continued to look straight ahead, and at that exact moment a photographer snapped the picture that would land Harvey in the spotlight.
The photo of him trying to hand Fox the rose quickly went viral, leading many to claim Fox had completely ignored the young fan. Fox later insisted she would 'never do that', and Kodak sought to reunite the two a few days later in New York.
However, right after Kindlon's plane landed in the Big Apple, the news broke that Michael Jackson had died, prompting Fox to cancel her trip.
As a result, Kindlon was left depicted as the hardcore Fox fan whose dreams never came true. But 14 years on, he's spoken to UNILAD about what really happened that night and how his life has changed since.
In spite of the hype around the picture, Kindlon has revealed he wasn't actually the one who'd wanted to give Fox a rose in the first place. He was there with his cousin, Cassie, who 'loved' the actor, and who had found a yellow rose to hand to her when she walked past.
Recalling that chaotic night, Kindlon said: "[My cousin] wanted to give [the flower] to her. And I was like 'okay, whatever'. This is at like 6pm - fast forward to like 10pm, and Megan comes back to the hotel after the [Transformers] premiere. It's f**king crazy - there's like 50 photographers, 50 fans...
"Cassie got too scared to give her the rose when she was getting out of the car, so I went 'oh Cassie give me the f*cking rose'."
He acknowledged Fox was a 'big pop culture icon', saying she was 'beautiful' and that he'd 'love to meet her' given her position as a famous actor, but he 'wasn't a diehard stan'.
However, Kindlon wanted to help out his cousin, so he grabbed the rose from her and leaned forward, saying 'Megan' and trying to give Fox the flower.
"She didn't even see it. No joke - nothing. I just went 'Megan', and nothing. It lasts like five seconds. I went, 'You know what, Cassie? I tried for you. Sorry babe'," Kindlon said.
It was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment in Kindlon's life, but for one photographer, that blink was the shutter of a camera lens.
Speaking of the now-iconic picture, Kindlon stressed he 'wasn't even that close' to Fox.
"It looks like it's me and her. I was like a row or two behind people, but that [photographer]... he got the perfect f**king angle," he said.
So Fox didn't accept the rose, and Kindlon went to move on with his life. Except, when he arrived in school the next day, everyone was talking about him.
As the picture spread across the globe, Kindlon became the subject of headlines and even a song on YouTube - a creation he says he 'hated for years'.
"Those next three days in school, it was f**king crazy," he recalled. "I remember it was just the minute I walked in, everyone just started shouting 'rose boy'. People put up pictures around school, and I really felt like I was in one of those like coming of age, American high school TV series moments.
"I was like, what's going on? It was just blowing up more and more as like the next three days went by. But it was more just people making fun of me, and I was like, 'Shut up. Leave me alone.'"
The thing is, meeting Fox wasn't as big a deal for Kindlon as it might be for other people. Over the years, he has met a whole range of celebrities, including Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, Mariah Carey and even Beyoncé.
He's always been a huge fan of music, and when he was 11 years old his aunt 'unlocked a door' which revealed how he could meet some of his idols.
She taught him about how you could spot celebrities outside hotels or venues, and he quickly learned the best time the catch the stars and snap photos with them.
He became part of a 'subculture' of people doing the same thing, and racked up celeb spot after celeb spot, to the point where some stars started to recognise him when they saw him for the second, third or fourth time.
So while seeing Fox was exciting in the same way that any celebrity encounter is exciting for us average Joes, for Kindlon, there were people who fell higher up on his list - many of who he did succeed in meeting.
There's one encounter in particular that stands out for Kindlon - one of the most successful singers in the world: Adele.
He remembers the singer as being 'extremely private', but he managed to see her in person nine times. He got an autograph from her at one point, but it wasn't until he managed to get a picture with her that he knew he'd succeeded in his dream encounter with his 'absolute queen'.
Kindlon described spotting celebrities as 'a type of drug', but later in his teenage years he started to reflect back on his incredible experiences and realised they weren't 'real life'.
He made clear the encounters had left him with 'lifelong memories', but when he went to university he decided to start a 'whole new life'.
Kindlon is now a full-time host of events in London, and while there are still some people he would love to meet - here's looking at you, Billie Eilish - he's truly found out who he is outside of someone who meets celebrities.
There was a time when people might have thought the most fulfulling thing in Kindlon's life would be handing a rose to Megan Fox, but now? He explains: "Having your own business, with people just telling you, 'you're so good at your job just by being yourself' - it's the most fulfilling thing in my life."
Emily Brown