When it was revealed that Taylor Swift had split from her long-term boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, on April 8, 2023, many people were completely shocked.

Taylor and Joe had enjoyed an incredibly private six-year relationship, which started in 2016 when Taylor retreated from the public eye amid her infamous feud with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.

When news of the split first broke, sources downplayed it. An insider told Entertainment Tonight: “It was not dramatic; the relationship has just run its course.”

But fans soon started to speculate that there was more to the breakup than met the eye, especially when they noted a strange pattern between Taylor’s social plans and Joe’s Instagram following.

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On April 19, Taylor met her close friends Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds for dinner. Shortly afterward, it was noted that Ryan had unfollowed Joe on social media.

It’s worth mentioning that just months earlier, Ryan raved about Joe for his Time 100 profile, saying at the time: “I’ve known Joe Alwyn for six years — and that’s long enough to see someone’s heart. Long enough to know whether or not they’re made of good stuff. And Joe Alwyn is made of good stuff.”

“He lives at the intersection of enigmatic mystery and fun drinking buddy,” Ryan continued in the profile. “It’s imperative I mention his kindness, his generosity, and humanity.”

Blake also wasn’t following Joe on Instagram at this point, but it is not confirmed if she ever did.

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On April 21, Taylor met Blake again for dinner, as well as Gigi Hadid and the Haim sisters — who, once again, all unfollowed Joe soon after the meal.

This fueled speculation that Taylor was spilling some serious tea about her ex during her IRL meet-ups with friends.

In addition, Taylor’s brother, Austin Swift, and best friend, Abigail Anderson, also unfollowed Joe’s relatively inactive Instagram platform at around this time.

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But one of Taylor’s close friends seemingly didn’t get the memo that they needed to pick a side in this breakup, with actor Emma Stone going out of her way to heap praise on Joe in brand new quotes.

Emma is one of Taylor’s longest friends, with the two first meeting all the way back in 2008 at an industry event. Emma later told MTV News: “Then I listened to some of her music, and I wrote her an e-mail saying I liked her music, I swear. And then we started talking and hanging out.”

The rest, as they say, is history, with Taylor and Emma seemingly being even closer now than they were 16 years ago. In fact, Emma attended multiple Eras tour shows last year to support her pal.

And when Taylor released her version of her 2010 album Speak Now in July, it was widely assumed that the previously unheard vault track “When Emma Falls In Love” is about Emma.

Furthermore, just last month, Emma’s “oddities” were credited on the song “Florida!!!” From Taylor’s new album, The Tortured Poets Department.

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Still, Emma’s clear loyalty to Taylor hasn’t stopped her from speaking highly of Joe ahead of the release of their new movie, Kinds of Kindness. Emma has reunited with her Poor Things director, Yorgos Lanthimos, for the film, which is due for release this June.

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Both Emma and Yorgos previously worked with Joe on the 2018 movie The Favourite, and he is part of the star-studded ensemble cast of their new project.

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And in the official press production notes for the movie, which were issued by Searchlight Pictures, Emma says that she and Joe being friends in real life helped them when filming difficult scenes together.

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“I love Joe,” Emma adds. “We had to do some pretty dark stuff on this one, so it was extremely comforting to be with him because he’s one of the sweetest people you’ll ever meet.”

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Joe also reflected on the “dark” subject matter in the notes, saying that he hopes viewers feel the same strong reaction that he felt when reading the script when they watch the movie.

“There’s a fine line between something that makes you squirm and something that makes you laugh,” he goes on. “It’s very hard to try and talk about a Yorgos film in a conventional way.”

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The movie’s release comes after a difficult few months for Joe, who was brutally targeted by Taylor’s fans after the tracklist for her latest album was revealed earlier this year.

Back in February, Swifties even started to spread an AI-generated video that vilified Joe — and manipulated a community note that exposed the fact that the clip wasn’t real.

In addition, Joe’s Conversations with Friends costar Alison Oliver was forced to turn off her Instagram comments after she was flooded with abusive messages falsely claiming that Joe had cheated on Taylor with her.

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Needless to say, fans were then left blindsided when Taylor’s 31-track album was released and most of the songs appeared to actually be about her controversial romance and subsequent breakup with Matty Healy — not Joe.

And the songs that seemingly are about Joe don’t speak poorly of him either, with the overriding theme being that Taylor grew bored in the relationship and was frustrated that they didn’t get married despite being together for so long.

She also suggests that she fantasized about Matty while she was still with Joe, and that she immediately moved on with him as soon as they officially split.

Joe, who is notoriously private, has never publicly acknowledged his and Taylor’s breakup, but a source recently told People that he “certainly doesn’t talk poorly” about Taylor, and has no hard feelings towards his ex.

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