Following the release of Taylor Swift’s newest album The Tortured Poets Department, fans rushed to parse the lyrics on every track. Listeners wanted to know who exactly Swift was singing about. A number of her love songs are believed to be about her current boyfriend Travis Kelce or her spring fling Matty Healy. And some are supposed to be about actor Joe Alwyn, who Swift dated for six years before they split in early 2023.
A source told Entertainment Tonight that though she did seem to write a few tunes about her relationship with Alwyn, they have allegedly not been in touch recently.
“Taylor and Joe are not in touch at this point, but they try to be respectful of one another,” said the insider. “Joe wants to keep his personal life private. He is more introverted and the interest about his personal life is a bit overwhelming to him. He is focused on acting and his career.”
They added, “Taylor is happier than ever in her relationship with Travis and is focused on the future.”
While they were dating, Swift and Alwyn actually collaborated on some of her music projects. He is even credited on her 2020 album, Folklore. Soone after its release, Alwyn said in an interview with the Guardian, “It wasn’t like, ‘It’s 5 o’clock, it’s time to try and write a song together.’ It came about from messing around on a piano, and singing badly, then being overheard, and being, like, ‘Let’s see what happens if we get to the end of it together.’”
The actor has kept a low-profile since their breakup, but an interview from December 2022 with Alwyn and actor Paul Mescal for Variety points to TTPD’s title origins. In the conversation, the two revealed they’re part of a WhatsApp chat called “The Tortured Man Club” along with actor Andrew Scott.
“It hasn’t had much use recently,” Alwyn said at the time.
Mescal replied, “No, I feel like we’re less tortured now.”