Taylor Swift’s Exes Most Candid Quotes About Their Relationships and Her Songwriting

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Taylor Swift's Exes Most Candid Quotes About Their Relationships and Her Songwriting

Writing what she knows! Taylor Swift is notorious for penning personal tunes about her high-profile relationships, but how do her exes feel about being her muses? The Grammy winner has been using her love life as inspiration since her self-titled debut dropped in 2006, featuring hits "Tim McGraw" and "Teardrops on My Guitar." More than 10 years later, when she rereleased 2012's Red, Swift had a simple message for anyone who might have thought her music was about them. "I haven't thought about their experience, to be honest," she said during a November 2021 appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers. Red (Taylor's Version) included updated renditions of fan-favorite tracks from the original record and a handful of never-before-heard songs from Swift's vault. Fans were most excited to hear the 10-minute version of "All Too Well," which paints a vivid picture of the Pennsylvania native's three-month relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal. "[I was] really sad [when Red came out]," Swift told Seth Meyers in November 2021. "But this time, I've got sunglasses on and a mojito, and it's chill this time. It's really nice to be able to put this album out and not be sad. [I'm not] taking breaks in between interviews to cry. I'm telling you, it's much better this way." [jwplayer JR9BQ88D-zhNYySv2] Gyllenhaal and the "Cardigan" singer briefly dated in late 2010, splitting before the new year. The Donnie Darko actor is nearly 10 years Swift's senior and hasn't publicly discussed their whirlwind romance very much over the years. However, he gave a cryptic response when asked about the Miss Americana star in March 2017. "I think when you're in a relationship, you are constantly scrutinized, your friends are scrutinized, but ... I would love to not talk about my personal life," the Tony nominee told The Guardian at the time. While the Brokeback Mountain star is hesitant to open up about his love life, some of Swift's other exes are more forthcoming. John Mayer was linked to the "Delicate" songstress in 2009 after they collaborated on his song "Half of My Heart." Mayer was famously the subject of her 2010 track "Dear John" — and he wasn't happy about it. "It made me feel terrible," the Connecticut native told Rolling Stone in 2012. "Because I didn't deserve it. I'm pretty good at taking accountability now, and I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do. ... I was really caught off guard, and it really humiliated me at a time when I'd already been dressed down. I mean, how would you feel if, at the lowest you've ever been, someone kicked you even lower?" Mayer called Swift's songwriting tactic "bulls--t" at the time, and as the CMA Award winner continues rerecording her old albums, fans are eager to hear more from that era of her career. "He's not going to make any public comments directly related to her songs or album," a source told Us Weekly exclusively of the "Your Body Is a Wonderland" crooner in November 2021. "[It's] coming back to haunt him." Scroll down to see what Swift's exes have said about her over the years: [podcast_block]

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Joe Alwyn

Alwyn, who won a Grammy award for his credits on Folkore’s “Betty” and “Exile,” opened up about how being a part of Swift’s music came to fruition.

“[It was] the most accidental thing to happen in lockdown,” he told GQ Hype in May 2022. “It was just messing around on a piano and singing badly and being overheard and then thinking, you know, what if we tried to get to the end of it together? It was fun to do together, and I was proud of it. It was nice getting such a positive reception.”

That same month, he explained why he initially chose to be credited on the album under a pseudonym during an episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show.

“We chose to do it so the people, first and foremost, would listen to the music first before dissecting the fact that we did it together,” he explained. “We did it under the name William Bowery … Very fancy. It sounds like a kind of Agatha Christie character that should be wearing a monocle with a big mustache.”

He continued, “It was a combination of William … my great-grandfather — who I actually never met — [who] was a composer. He wrote a lot of classical music, and he wrote a lot of film scores,” Alwyn added. “And then Bowery is the area in New York that I spent a lot of time in when I first moved over there. So I stuck them together.”

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Harry Styles

During a May 2022 interview with Howard Stern, Styles was asked if his upcoming song “Daylight” referenced any connection to Swift, who penned a song with the same name.

“You know I’d love to tell you you’re spot-on, but you’re not,” the "Watermelon Sugar" singer claimed after Stern accused him of "smiling" at the question. “We will always wonder.”

The U.K. native went on to say that the song was about a particular woman who had not responded to his affections the way he had anticipated.

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Jake Gyllenhaal

The Guilty star has often shut down questions about his history with Swift, playing coy about their past. "I think when you're in a relationship, you are constantly scrutinized, your friends are scrutinized, but ... I would love to not talk about my personal life," he told The Guardian in March 2017. 

Six months later, when asked during a Facebook Q&A if he thought Swift would write "a country song" about him, Gyllenhaal reluctantly teased, "She's sort of moved more into pop now." 

After Red (Taylor's Version) dropped in November 2021, a cat believed to be owned by Gyllenhaal weighed in on the 10-minute version of "All Too Well," noting in an Instagram post, "MEOUCH — y'all need to clam [sic] down and stop cyber bullying."

Four months later, Gyllenhaal was asked directly about the track, telling Esquire, “It has nothing to do with me. It’s about her relationship with her fans. It is her expression. Artists tap into personal experiences for inspiration, and I don’t begrudge anyone that.”

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Harry Styles

Reflecting on the New York City photos that initially linked him to the Grammy winner in 2012, the former One Direction member told Rolling Stone in 2017, "Relationships are hard, at any age. And adding in that you don't really understand exactly how it works when you're 18, trying to navigate all that stuff didn't make it easier. I mean, you're a little bit awkward, to begin with. ...  It was a learning experience for sure. But at the heart of it ... I just wanted it to be a normal date." 

Three years prior, he gushed over Swift's songwriting on 1989, an album many fans believe is based on their relationship. "We always say we write from personal experience and I think everyone does so it would be hypocritical of us to be like 'Oh, you can't write songs,'" he said in a 2014 Google+ hangout. "And she's really good, so they're really good songs. So I'm lucky in that sense."

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Calvin Harris

"It's very difficult when something I consider so personal plays out very publicly," the DJ told British GQ three months after his June 2016 split from the "Begin Again" singer. "The aftermath of the relationship was way more heavily publicized than the relationship itself. When we were together, we were very careful for it not to be a media circus. She respected my feelings in that sense. I'm not good at being a celebrity."

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John Mayer

Two years after Swift penned 2010's "Dear John" about their short-lived romance, the "Daughters" crooner told Rolling Stone he was "humiliated" by the track, calling it "cheap songwriting" to directly reference an ex. However, his stance later seemed to have changed.

"I don't think it's a dirty admission. Sometimes, a song is so good, I go, ‘Man, I hope that’s about me.' ...  I'll check everyone's music out. I'm a fan," he told Andy Cohen in February 2021.

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Taylor Lautner

"It was a good time. It was a fun few months there," the Twilight actor joked in a 2016 Facebook Live with Lea Michele and John Stamos, who brought up his past romance with his Valentine's Day costar. "I don't know why you guys want to talk about it. That's what she does. She writes songs. It's good music. I listen to it."

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Tom Hiddleston

The viral 2016 photos of "Hiddleswift" had some fans wondering whether the relationship was all for show, but the Marvel star insisted there was nothing fake about it. "Of course it was real," the British actor told GQ in 2017. "Taylor is an amazing woman. She's generous and kind and lovely, and we had the best time. I only know the woman I met. She’s incredible."

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Joe Jonas

"That's part of being a musician, I guess. You write songs about each other," the Disney alum told Access Hollywood in 2015, seven years after he dated Swift. "She’s great. Yeah, we're friends. In this industry, you meet a lot of people and you stay in touch. Obviously, it's tough to be friends with people that are always constantly traveling, but yeah, we're cool."

In 2020, Swift included a line on Folklore's "Invisible String" about sending former flames presents for their babies, which fans believed to be about Jonas' daughter, Willa, who he shares with wife Sophie Turner. 

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Lucas Till

The MacGyver alum sparked a brief romance with the Cats actress after he starred in her 2009 music video for "You Belong With Me." Later that year, he told MTV,  "We dated for a little bit. But there was no friction because we were too nice. We just really both liked each other, [but] most relationships work out 'cause you get along and then you don't, and then you make up and it's passionate, and with us, I really just liked her as a friend. That's the only reason that [it] didn't work out."