Joe Alwyn has broken his silence over his shock split from Taylor Swift after six years of dating for the first time.
While speaking about their past relationship in a new interview with The Sunday Times Style, the 33-year-old British actor, who is notoriously private about his personal life, described his time with the pop star, 34, as ‘long, loving’ and ‘fully committed.’
When asked if he listened to her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, which is rumored to be about their breakup, Alwyn said: ‘In thinking on what I was going to say, I would think and hope that anyone and everyone can empathize. … This isn’t a direct answer to your question, but just thinking about what I want to talk about.’
‘I would hope that anyone and everyone can empathize and understand the difficulties that come with the end of a long, loving, fully committed relationship of over six and a half years,’ he continued.
The Conversations with Friends star proceeded to admit that the end of their long-term relationship has been ‘a hard thing to navigate.’
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Joe Alwyn has broken his silence over his shock split from Taylor Swift after six years of dating for the first time; seen in 2019
Last year in April, it was confirmed that Swift and Alwyn had officially gone their separate ways after dating for six years. The songstress has since moved on with Kansas City Chiefs tight end, Travis Kelce.
While attending the Grammy Awards earlier this month, she notably won the awards for both Best Pop Vocal Album and Album of the Year for Midnights.
While accepting her first award of the night for Pop Vocal Album, the star notably announced that she would be dropping her next album titled: The Tortured Poets Department.
After the surprise revelation, fans were quickly convinced that the title of the album was in reference to Alwyn.
Back in 2022, the actor explained that he was part of a WhatsApp group chat with close pals Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott called The Tortured Man Club.
Following the album announcement, a source told DailyMail.com that Alwyn feels it would be ‘shady’ if Taylor dissed him in The Tortured Poets Department.
‘Joe has not said one word about Taylor or their breakup and has been completely respectful of her,’ an insider told DailyMail.com exclusively. ‘It’s undeniable that the name of her upcoming album is in reference to Joe’s WhatsApp group chat.’
The source continued: ‘Taylor knocked him for the name of this when they were together. She didn’t want people to think that it had anything to do with her, so when he spoke out about it, she was, of course, bothered.’
The insider continued: ‘Joe has no reason to believe yet that she is going to diss him or their relationship.
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While speaking about their past relationship in a new interview with The Sunday Times, the 33-year-old British actor, who is notoriously private about his personal life, described his time with the pop star, 34, as ‘long, loving’ and ‘fully committed’ (pictured last month)
Taylor Swift’s ex Joe Alwyn spotted enjoying coffee with friend
‘She writes about her past using code and points of reference. It may just be that she is reflecting on their time together and he is hoping it is nothing more.
‘If it is a diss album, that is shady. He helped her with song writing on her past album so it will really come as a shock to him if she talks about their breakup, as it is something he has not spoken of at all.’
The source finished: ‘Regardless of what she does, he will still not respond because he has removed himself from her narrative and is very glad, he did.’
Swift previously revealed that she and Alwyn spent their time in quarantine together making music together.
Alwyn was also one of the producers on her hit record Folklore, and notably helped co-write the tracks Betty and Exile. However, the actor was notably credited under the pseudonym of William Bowery.
‘I wasn’t expecting to make an album. Early on in quarantine, I started watching lots of films. We would watch a different movie every night,’ she told Entertainment Tonight.
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When asked if he listened to her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, which is rumored to be about their breakup, Alwyn said: ‘In thinking on what I was going to say, I would think and hope that anyone and everyone can empathize. … This isn’t a direct answer to your question, but just thinking about what I want to talk about’ (seen in 2019)
‘I’m ashamed to say I hadn’t seen Pan’s Labyrinth before. One night I’d watch that, then I’d watch L.A. Confidential, then we’d watch Rear Window, then we’d watch Jane Eyre.’
‘I feel like consuming other people’s art and storytelling sort of opened this portal in my imagination and made me feel like, ‘Well, why have I never done this before?”
”Why have I never created characters and intersecting storylines? And why haven’t I ever sort of freed myself up to do that from a narrative standpoint?” Taylor added to the outlet.
And while appearing on The Zane Lowe Show for Apple Music, Swift further talked about how collaborating with Alwyn came about when they quarantined together in London.
‘He’s always just playing instruments and he doesn’t do it in a strategic “I’m writing a song right now” thing,’ the Bad Blood hitmaker explained.
‘He’s always done that. But do I think we would have taken the step of, “Hey, let’s see if there’s a song in here. Let’s write a song together.” If we hadn’t been in lockdown, I don’t think that would have happened, but I’m so glad that it did.’
Taylor later added, ‘Joe and I really love sad songs. We’ve always bonded over music…We write the saddest. We just really love sad songs. What can I say?’
In 2022, Alwyn told Harper’s Bazaar in 2022: ‘I completely expect people to ask those questions [about their relationship], if I’m putting work into the world, of course people are going to ask about that.’
But he added definitively: ‘I can understand that those questions would be asked, but I don’t see why these questions should always be answered’.
Swifties became convinced they were planning to get married or had already secretly walked down the aisle, especially after they spent the pandemic together and he even co-wrote songs with her award winning albums Folklore and Evermore.
But Joe was again absolute in his silence.
‘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 said.
‘I mean, the truth is, if the answer was yes, I wouldn’t say, and if the answer was no, I wouldn’t say.’
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‘I would hope that anyone and everyone can empathize and understand the difficulties that come with the end of a long, loving, fully committed relationship of over six and a half years,’ he continued; seen in 2020
Joe Alwyn looks dapper at the 13th Governors Awards in LA
The Tortured Poets Department is being viewed as their break up album with a number of songs apparently about the split.
In Loml, short for love of my life, Taylor sings: ‘You s**t talked me under the table. Talking rings and talking cradles. The coward. He was a lion. I’m combing through the braids of lies’.
Her new song The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived is equally scathing.
The lyrics include: ‘And you’ll confess why you did it . . . And I’ll say good riddance. ’Cos it wasn’t sexy once it wasn’t forbidden.
‘You didn’t measure up in any measure of a man. I would have died for your sins but instead I just died inside’.
The album’s third track ‘My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys’ includes a lyric that could be about Joe, as Swifties have long accused him of shying away from the spotlight and forcing the star to be ‘secretive.’
‘Put me back on my shelf. But first, pull the string and I’ll tell you that he runs because he loves me,’ she sings.
In the fourth track, ‘Down Bad’, Swift admits to breaking down ‘crying at the gym’ and how the end of hers and Joe’s six-year relationship left her feeling ‘hollow.’
She sings: ‘Did you take all my old clothes just to leave me here naked and alone/ In a field in my same old town that somehow seems so hollow now.
‘You deserve prison, but you won’t get time. You will slide into inboxes and slip through the bars. In plain sight you hid but you are what you did. And I’ll forget you, but I’ll never forgive the smallest man who ever lived.’
Perhaps the most transparent riposte to her time with Alywn comes via ‘So long, London’.
The raw track details Swift’s heartache as she realized that her relationship with the British actor is over.
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Swift’s last album, The Tortured Poets Department, is being viewed as the former couple’s break up album with a number of songs apparently about the split
She sings: ‘I stopped trying to make him laugh/ Stopped trying to drill the safe,’ she sings. She then talks of bidding farewell to ‘the house in the Heath.’
Taylor and Joe reportedly met when they crossed paths at the 2016 Met Gala.
After years of her relationships being obsessively scrutinized in the media, the couple went to great lengths to keep their relationship out of the public eye.
It wasn’t until more than a year after their meeting that they were photographed together in 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee.
But it was a huge shock when they suddenly parted in 2023.
Taylor and Joe were together for six years but split up last year when many believed that they were destined to marry after her disastrous love life and dating some of the world’s most famous men.
DailyMail.com exclusively revealed that Taylor’s unparalleled starpower played a role in the end of her relationship with Joe amid claims by fans that he was unfaithful.
A source close to the singer said at the time: ‘The bottom line for the difficulties in their relationship was that Taylor’s career took priority over Joe’s – which can be awkward for a couple when it’s not balanced.
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Taylor and Joe reportedly met when they crossed paths at the 2016 Met Gala and went to great lengths to keep their relationship out of the public eye
October: Taylor Swift ignores ‘weird rumours’ about Joe Alwyn
‘This drove them apart and ultimately, they both realized they were not on the same page anymore.’
The insider explained that ‘it’s been hard for Joe trying to make it in Hollywood and not quite becoming leading man material while dating one of the most famous women in the world over the last six years.
‘It was easier during the pandemic when it was just the two of them, but once things returned to normal, Taylor Swift the superstar emerged, and their differences were even more apparent.
‘They really made a go of it and tried everything they could but ultimately were unable to save the relationship,’ the source concluded.
During their early years together they would sometimes don disguises to visit each other or make outings together undetected, according to US Weekly.
She made frequent under the radar trips to his home in London.
In October 2018, Joe told British Vogue that the secrecy around their relationship was intentional.
‘I’m aware people want to know about that side of things. I think we have been successfully private,’ he said.
Rumours about the couple’s long-term plans together were frequent, with sources telling outlets Taylor thought she’d found her soulmate and that she was hoping they would get engaged.
That speculation soared in January 2020 with the release of Netflix’s documentary ‘Miss. Americana,’ in which she could be seen wearing a large diamond on her ring finger during an interview.
