They’re in the clear! Harry Styles defended his ex-girlfriend Taylor Swift for mining their 2012 relationship — and its beautifully painful aftermath of course — for material in her wildly successful new album, 1989.
During a Google Hangout hosted by One Direction on Sunday, Nov. 9, Styles was asked by their documentary director friend Ben Winston what it was like to be the speculative subject of songs like “Out of the Woods,” “Style,” and more.
“We write from personal experience,” Styles, 20, responded. “I think everyone does. So it would be hypocritical of us to be like, ‘Oh, you can’t write about us.'”
Swift, 24, confessed to Rolling Stone in a recent interview that much of the subject matter for her latest album was based on her relationship with Styles. The singer alludes to various instances in their well-documented relationship in lyrics of songs like “I Wish You Would,” the aptly-titled “Style,” and “All You Had to Do Was Stay.” The most telling tune about Styles, though, is seen in the second single from 1989, “Out of the Woods,” which Swift told the mag was a look back at an anxiety-riddled relationship.
“Every day was a struggle,” the former country singer told Rolling Stone. “Forget making plans for life – we were just trying to make it to next week.”
Styles, though, even went as far in his Google Hangout to praise his singer-songwriter ex-girlfriend for her talent. “She’s really good, so… they’re good songs,” the British heartthrob said of Swift’s latest work. “So I’m really lucky in that sense.”
