Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn’s breakup seemed like a surprise, but were Swifties simply missing the signs?
Swift and Alwyn kept things low key throughout their six-year romance, which kicked off in 2016.
The following year, a source told Us Weekly exclusively that the couple was “taking it slow,” but were “very much in love.” Swift briefly touched on the relationship for the first time during her 2020 Netflix documentary, Miss Americana, as she spoke about her Reputation era. Swift noted she felt “alone” and “bitter” at the time, but Alwyn changed that.
“We decided together we wanted our relationship to be private,” the singer said. “Even though it was [a] really horrible [time], I was happy. But I wasn’t happy in the way I was trained to be happy. It was happiness without anyone else’s input. We were just … happy.”
Later that same year, a separate source told Us that Swift thought of Alwyn as “one of the only safe constants in her life” and were planning for a future together.
“[They] have talked about their future and marriage,” the insider shared in March 2020. “They don’t have a set deadline in place.”
Fans were convinced that the two were secretly engaged, but neither Swift nor Alwyn ever confirmed the rumors and sources told Us that there was no ring.
As Swift decided to start name-dropping Alwyn publicly (during the Disney+ Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions in 2020 and her 2021 Grammy Awards speech), the actor doubled-down on keeping things out of the public eye.
“We live in a culture that is so increasingly intrusive,” Alwyn told Elle in April 2022 about staying “guarded and private” about his relationship. “The more you give and frankly, even if you don’t give it, something will be taken.”
News broke in April 2023 that Swift and Alwyn were over, but it’s unclear when they officially pulled the plug.
Keep scrolling for every hint leading up to Swift and Alwyn’s breakup:
Alwyn’s ‘Eras Tour’ Absence
When Swift kicked off her Eras Tour in March 2023, he was noticeably absent from the VIP tent.
In fact, fans have only ever seen him attend one of her shows throughout the entirety of their six-year relationship, and it was documented for Miss Americana. In the documentary, Alwyn was spotted backstage wearing a black hat pulled down over his face, an apparent move to hide from the cameras.
This is quite different from Swift’s relationship with Travis Kelce, which kicked off in late 2023. Within weeks of their romance going public, the NFL star attended his second Eras Tour show, and even packed on the PDA with the singer after she changed a lyric in his honor.
The Engagement Secrecy
When fans were convinced that Swift and Alwyn were engaged in 2020, he played coy about the rumors years later.
“If I had a pound for every time I think I’ve been told I’ve been engaged, then I’d have a lot of pound coins,” he told WSJ. Magazine in April 2022. “I mean, the truth is, if the answer was yes, I wouldn’t say, and if the answer was no, I wouldn’t say.”
Alwyn was notoriously private about their love, which a source told Us in April 2023 led to the breakup.
“Joe is very shy and never liked all of the attention that came with dating one of the most popular singers in the world,” the insider said.
In November 2023, Swift’s longtime publicist Tree Paine set the record straight about ongoing Swift and Alwyn rumors after Instagram gossip account DeuxMoi shared a theory that the former couple secretly got married before breaking up.
“Enough is enough with these fabricated lies about Taylor from Deuxmoi,” Paine wrote via X (formerly Twitter). “There was NEVER a marriage or ceremony of ANY kind. This is an insane thing to post. It’s time for you to be held accountable for the pain and trauma you cause with posts like these.”
Deleting a Declaration of Love
After their breakup, Swift seemingly hinted at some discourse between herself and Alwyn by deleting the “Lavender Haze” song explainer off Instagram.
Ahead of her October 2022 Midnights album release, Swift explained how the song was a declaration of love.
“I happened upon the phrase ‘lavender haze’ when I was watching Mad Men. I looked it up because I thought it sounded cool. And it turns out that it’s a common phrase used in the ’50s where they would describe being in love,” Swift shared in the since-deleted clip. “If you’re in the ‘lavender haze,’ then that meant you were in that all-encompassing love glow. And I thought that was really beautiful.”
The ‘Eras Tour’ Setlist
After news of the split went public, Swift swapped the first song in her Folklore era from “Invisible String” to “The 1.” This led fans to wonder if she was dropping hints about the breakup from Alwyn.
‘You’re Losing Me’
The Midnights From the Vault track was “written and recorded” in December 2021, per Swift’s frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff.
Initially, the song was released in May 2023 on an exclusive CD sold to fans at the Eras Tour. However, the track became available for streaming in November of that year. Fans were quick to speculate that the song referenced the end of her relationship with Alwyn, but the details shared by Antonoff pose a new question — did the downfall of Swift and Alwyn start years ago?
“I wouldn’t marry me either / A pathological people pleaser / Who only wanted you to see her,” Swift sings on the song’s bridge. “And I’m fading thinking / Do something, babe, say something / Lose something, babe, risk something / Choose something, babe, I got nothing to believe, unless you’re choosing me.”
