Hours after Taylor Swift’s latest album dropped, all eyes are on her ex Joe Alwyn.
Although their six-year affair appears to be mentioned frequently in The Tortured Poets Department, a source close to the British actor, 33, told People that he preferred to make their romance “his own personal story.”
In Alwyn’s words, “many people were taken aback” by the news, but he “wasn’t bragging in any manner.”
Between 2017 and 2023, when Swift, 34, dated Alwyn, the 14-time Grammy Award winner largely avoided the limelight.
Under the alias William Bowery, he co-wrote and co-produced numerous tracks on Folklore, for which they shared a 2021 Grammy for Album of the Year.
A year later, the duo received another nomination for Evermore for the same honour.
The Boy Erased actor declined to talk about their relationship in public in the interim.
“Why should I tell strangers about my personal life when people on the street wouldn’t?” Before they broke up last year, he said.
While Alwyn “can understand” the interest in their relationship, he stated to Harper’s Bazaar in 2022, “I don’t see why these questions should always be answered.”
“I fully anticipate that people will inquire about those things [about their]—if I’m contributing to the world, then people will undoubtedly do so,” he continued.
In response to rumours at the time, he categorically informed the publication he “wouldn’t say” whether or not they had decided to get engaged.
Swift seems to allude to their connection in the lyrics of her new song, “So Long, London,” which read, “I stopped trying to make him laugh / Stopped trying to drill the safe.”
Swift sings, “And I’m pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free.”
In the song “Fresh Out the Slammer,” she seemed to imply that Alwyn had cheated on her as well.
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“Another summer slipping away” Rolling thunder, he doesn’t comprehend my words. split apart in the winter / She sings, “Silent dinner, bitter he was with her in dreams.”
Swift also seems to be drawing inspiration from her wedding ensemble at this year’s Grammy Awards in a teaser she released on Thursday for the music video for her lead track, “Fortnight.”
Swifties surmised that Alwyn, who supposedly “refused to marry” her, was the intended aim of the original clothing.
Swift made a statement following the release of TPD on Thursday night, talking about letting go of the “sensational and sorrowful” period that served as the album’s inspiration.
The author writes, “This chapter of the author’s life is now closed and boarded up.” “Once wounds have healed, there is nothing to settle scores or exact retribution for.”
Swift said, “And after more thought, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted.”
This writer firmly believes that when our tears turn into ink on a paper, they become holy. We can let go of our darkest tale once we’ve spoken it. And the tortured poetry is all that’s left behind.
The “Fortnight” video will be released on Friday at 8 p.m. ET, and the Tortured Poets Department is currently accessible for download and streaming.