Taylor Swift is anything but subtle. The Grammy-winning songstress just dropped her 11th studio album The Tortured Poets Department, and even prior to the project’s drop on April 19, fans speculated it would reference Joe Alwyn, Taylor’s ex-boyfriend of six years. Now that the album is here, it’s safe to say Swifties were right! Keep reading for every song lyric in the album that seemingly refers to the songwriter’s former beau.
ICYMI, Taylor and Joe dated for six years before their breakup was reported in April 2023. The pair kept their relationship out of the public eye for the most part while they were together, and only made brief mentions to their relationship publicly — so it was unclear what happened between the two.
However, prior to the Midnights singer’s most recent album drop, an old interview of Taylor resurfaced — where she explained that she didn’t like hiding her relationships, before she had even started dating Joe.
“To me, it all depends on who you’re with. If they have a serious issue with it then you, I guess, hide or whatever but I don’t really like that,” Taylor said during a 2012 interview on The Chatty Man. “Because it makes me feel like I’m running from the law or something. I don’t want to feel like I’m a fugitive, like, ‘Oh my God, we’re having a relationship! Better put on a mask and stuff!’”
Taylor added that she just wants to “live [her] life” and not worry about what others think. “I feel like if you can be in a relationship and have it seem normal, that would be good.”
After Taylor and Joe’s split in April 2023, the singer-songstress began dating Kansas City Chiefs player, Travis Kelce. In contrast, the lovebirds have had no trouble supporting one another in the public eye.
“When you say a relationship is public, that means I’m going to see him do what he loves, we’re showing up for each other, other people are there and we don’t care,” Taylor told TIME Magazine in December 2023 of her current romance. “The opposite of that is you have to go to an extreme amount of effort to make sure no one knows that you’re seeing someone. And we’re just proud of each other.”
Scroll through our gallery for all of the references to Joe below.
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