Oh, he went that direction! Harry Styles quoted his ex-girlfriend Taylor Swift on Monday, February 1, in a tweet marking his 22nd birthday. Naturally, the Internet — including Us — lost its mind.
I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling 22.
— Harry Styles. (@Harry_Styles) February 1, 2016
The One Direction heartthrob was referring to Swift’s 2012 single, “22,” in which she sings those exact words.
Swift, 26, and Styles dated back in November 2012 but called it quits in a rather messy split several months later. Though the relationship was short-lived, Styles had an impact on the pop star, who penned several songs about him in her smash fifth studio album, 1989.
The songs on the record believed to be about Styles include, well, “Style” and “Out of the Woods.” The lyrics from both tunes include numerous references to their seasonal romance.
In “Out of the Woods,” Swift sings about “two paper airplanes flying,” which may have alluded to an airplane necklace that she would occasionally borrow from Styles while they dated. In the same tune, Swift also drops lyrics about being “out of the woods” and “in the clear,” perhaps alluding to their snowmobile crash that winter.
In an August 2013 interview with Us Weekly, Styles said he fully expected Swift to pen tunes about him. “It would be hypocritical for me to say she couldn’t do it because everybody writes songs based on personal experience,” Styles, then 19, told Us. “I can’t say I’d have dated someone less famous to avoid it.”
Swift spoke about the relationship during an intimate Grammys performance last fall, and shared that it was an uneasy time period. “The number one feeling I felt in the whole relationship was anxiety. Because it felt very fragile, it felt very tentative,” she reflected. “And it always felt like, ‘OK, what’s the next road block? What’s the next thing that’s gonna deter this? How long do we have before this turns into just an awful mess and we break up? Is it a month? Is it three days?”
Swift is now dating Calvin Harris, while Styles most recently reunited with Kendall Jenner on a steamy yacht trip.
