If you’re anything like me, one of your biggest problems is that you’re too invested in celebrity news. So, this past week when I was sitting in a friend’s dorm and got a notification from one of the several gossip Twitter accounts I follow saying, “Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn have officially broken up,” I felt my heart drop.
Global superstar Taylor Swift had been with actor Joe Alwyn for almost seven years at this point. The two had met at the 2016 Met Gala and as Swift states in her song “Paper Rings” from Lover she “went home and stalked him on the internet.” Almost a year later, reports started coming out that the two of them had started dating. The two were seen in a few paparazzi shots seemingly confirming their relationship.
Swifties everywhere loved this relationship. The simple love songs such as “Delicate” and “Lover” Taylor put out made fans fall in love with Joe themselves. When Swift’s 2020 documentary Miss Americana came out, she included a few minutes touching on her relationship. There’s a cute candid video of Taylor singing her song “Call It What You Want” to Joe, stopping in the middle to tell him she loves him. Swoon. Fans also knew this was Taylor’s most private relationship as she stated, “We decided together that we wanted our relationship to be private.” Taylor has gotten so much hate thrown at her for years simply for dating men, so it only makes sense that she wanted to keep this part of her life away from the public eye.
However, fans recently started speculating about the pair. Swift just started her highly anticipated Eras Tour and people noticed that Alwyn was not in attendance at any of the shows. This confused fans as he attended several shows during her 2019 Reputation Stadium Tour. Soon after rumors started, Entertainment Tonight confirmed suspicions and stated that the couple had split.
I, like many Taylor fans, feel absolutely devastated by this news. Fan reactions everywhere have all been similar. Pure heartbreak. People have stated that they don’t think love is real now, were confused because they thought the two were secretly married, and were even in complete denial. At the end of the day, Swift nor Alwyn have confirmed the rumors, so we can all hope the pair is still together.
I will personally be keeping an eye out on the setlist of Swift’s tour. She has said that it is ever-changing and has already changed one of the songs, “invisible string,” to another folklore hit, “the 1.” Many wonder if this has something to do with her breakup. Time will only tell if several songs, including surprise songs, will reflect her very recent split.