Taylor Swift released The Life of a Showgirl, her highly-anticipated 12th album, on Oct. 3. While Swifties are absolutely bopping to this album, they’re also combing through the new lyrics for hidden meanings and allusions to Swift’s personal life. One song in particular — “Actually Romantic” — is turning heads, as many believe it’s a dig at Charli xcx. Let’s take a look at Swift and Charli xcx’s history — it’s a wild ride from start to finish.
While Swift and Charli xcx have never publicly addressed their tension, their complicated relationship timeline has fans speculating that Charli is the muse behind “Actually Romantic.” In the song, Swift sings about being the subject of someone’s hatred and obsession. She sings, “But it’s actually sweet / All the time you’ve spent on me / It’s honestly wild / All the effort you’ve put in / It’s actually romantic / I really gotta hand it to you / No man has ever loved me like you do.”
Whether or not fans are correct in theorizing “Actually Romantic” is about Charli, the song is absolutely a diss track. Plus, the alleged drama between the two dates back several years. Here’s a complete timeline of Swift and Charli xcx’s history, from tour buddies to possible diss tracks.
- May 2018: Reputation Stadium Tour
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Swift embarked on her reputation stadium tour, bringing along Charli and Camila Cabello as her openers. Every night on tour, Swift had Charli xcx and Cabello join her onstage to sing “Shake It Off” as a trio. At this point, Swift and Charli seemed to be good friends with lots of respect for each other’s music.
- August 2019:
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After the reputation tour wrapped, Charli discussed touring as a headliner vs. as an opener in an interview with Pitchfork. She mentioned opening for Swift, saying, “I’m really grateful that [Taylor] asked me on that tour. But as an artist, it kind of felt like I was getting up on stage and waving to 5-year-olds.” This statement caused a lot of backlash at the time, which Charli then addressed on Twitter/X. “I am extremely grateful for the opportunity I was given and how much fun it was to perform to a new audience!” she wrote.
- May 2024: Addressing “Diss Tracks”
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Days before releasing her sixth album, BRAT, Charli made a statement on TikTok about how there aren’t any diss tracks on the album. “Some people think that there are diss tracks on BRAT, and I just wanted to come on here and clarify that there aren’t,” she said. “They’re really just about how it’s so complicated being an artist, especially a female artist, where you are pitted against your peers but also expected to be best friends with every single person constantly. And if you’re not, you’re deemed a bad feminist.”
- June 2024: Brat Is Released
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Charli released BRAT, including the song “Sympathy is a Knife,” which fans theorized to be about Swift. Many believe Charli references Swift in the lyrics, “Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show / Fingers crossed behind my back, I hope they break up quick.” It’s important to note that both women have romantic links to the men of The 1975: Charli is married to George Daniel, while Swift dated Matty Healy in 2023. So Charli and Swift were briefly dating two members of the same band, hence the song lyric that fans read into.
As for the rest of the song, “Sympathy is a Knife” deals with feeling insecure and inferior around another woman. Charli sings, “This one girl traps my insecurities / Don’t know if it’s real or if I’m spiraling.”
Later in the month, Charli posted an Instagram Story addressing her fans’ behavior at shows, after her crowd in Brazil allegedly chanted, “Taylor Swift is dead!” during Charli’s performance. “Can the people who do this please stop. Online or at my shows,” she wrote. “It is the opposite of what I want, and it disturbs me that anyone would think there is room for this in this community. I will not tolerate it.”
- August 2024: Charli xcx denies a Taylor Swift feud
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In an interview with Vulture, Charli denied the claims that she referenced Swift in “Sympathy is a Knife.” She shared, “That song is about me and my feelings and my anxiety and the way my brain creates narratives and stories in my head when I feel insecure and how I don’t want to be in those situations physically when I feel self-doubt.”
In the same article, Swift praised Charli for her work ethic and artistry. “I’ve been blown away by Charli’s melodic sensibilities since I first heard ‘Stay Away’ in 2011,” Swift said. “Her writing is surreal and inventive, always. She just takes a song to places you wouldn’t expect it to go, and she’s been doing it consistently for over a decade. I love to see hard work like that pay off.”
- October 2024: Charli talks about matty healy
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In an interview with Apple Music, Charli referenced Matty Healy’s history with inciting controversy, and ultimately came to his defense: “He’s like my brother, you know?” she said. “And I hope he wouldn’t mind me saying this, but I have an endless amount of respect for him as a songwriter and him as a person. But I sometimes want to strangle him.”
Charli’s tough love for Healy raised some suspicion regarding her relationship with Swift: Swift and Healy broke up in 2023, and many believed Charli’s loyalty to Healy insinuated she and Swift were no longer on good terms. Additionally, it’s important to note that Charli is a long-term friend of Gabbriette, Healy’s now-fiancée.
- October 2025: “Actually Romantic” Is released
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Swift released her 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl, including “Actually Romantic,” on Oct. 3. In the song, she expresses feeling flattered that she had unknowingly been the subject of another woman’s twisted obsession — which some fans believed to be a response to “Sympathy is a Knife.” Swift explained “Actually Romantic” in the Track by Track edition of The Life of a Showgirl on Amazon Music, saying, “[It’s] about realizing that someone else has had a one-sided adversarial relationship with you that you didn’t know about… It’s presenting themself as them resenting you or having a problem with you, but you taking it and accepting it as love.”