Taylor Swift’s romance with actor Joe Alwyn has been her most serious yet secretive relationship to date. Starting in 2016, the pair’s private romance made headlines and managed to keep the public hooked. In April 2023, however, as Swift’s Eras Tour began, their split was confirmed.
Throughout their six years together, Swift and Alwyn mostly kept the intimate details of their relationship under wraps—a departure from her very well-publicized, infamously critiqued previous romantic history.
Still, the singer managed to sprinkle nods to her beau throughout her discography over that time, referencing the actor in songs dating as far back as 2017’s Reputation, up through 2022’s Midnights and 2024’s The Tortured Poets Department.
Ahead, look back on the full timeline of their romance—including engagement rumors, fan theories on all Swift’s Easter eggs about Alwyn, and the rare public comments the two have made about each other.
April 19, 2024: Taylor hints at their split on The Tortured Poets Department.
The singer’s 11th studio album alludes to the end of her romance with Alwyn on several tracks, like “So Long, London,” “Fresh Out the Slammer,” “I Can Do It with a Broken Heart,” and bonus track “The Black Dog.”
In “So Long, London,” Swift implies their relationship gave out due to a “quiet resentment.” She sings: “And you say I abandoned the ship / But I was going down with it / My white-knuckle dyin’ grip / Holding tight to your quiet resentment / And my friends said it isn’t right to be scared / Every day of a love affair / Every breath feels like rarest air / When you’re not sure if he wants to be there.”
April 8, 2023: Sources confirm their amicable split.
Swift and Alwyn have called it quits after six years, a source confirms to Entertainment Tonight. “It was not dramatic,” the source tells the outlet. “The relationship had just run its course. It’s why [Alwyn] hasn’t been spotted at any shows.”
Following the reports, Swift is seen getting emotional while performing “Champagne Problems” on the Eras Tour.
March 22, 2023: Joe supports Taylor as the Eras Tour begins.
As Swift kicks off her Eras Tour, a source close to hers tells People that Alwyn “will travel with her when he can.” The insider adds, “They are great together. Joe is super supportive of her career.”
March 16, 2023: Taylor drops a previously unreleased song about Joe.
Swift finally drops “All of the Girls You Loved Before,” a highly anticipated outtake dedicated to Alwyn from 2019’s Lover. (Swift and Alwyn were still keeping their romantic status a secret when the album came out.)
Throughout the song, Swift praises the women the actor loved before her and how they have helped shape him into the man he is today.
January 2023: Taylor leaves an Easter egg about Joe in the video for “Lavender Haze.”
Eagle-eyed fans spotted a hint Swift left about her beau in the “Lavender Haze” music video.
The video includes a shot of an LP cover featuring the constellations for Sagittarius and Pisces—which are Swift’s and Alwyn’s respective zodiac signs.
October 2022: Taylor reveals a new song about Joe.
In a clip on Instagram, the singer shares some background information about her upcoming single “Lavender Haze,” from soon-to-be-released album Midnights, that touches on the nature of her romance with Alwyn.
“Like my relationship for six years, we’ve had to dodge weird rumors, tabloid stuff, and we just ignore it,” Swift says in the video. “And so, this song is sort of about the act of ignoring that stuff to protect the real stuff.”
She also expands on the inspiration behind the song’s title: “If you were in the lavender haze, then that meant that you were in that all-encompassing love glow, and I thought that was really beautiful.”
August 2022: They go out for dinner in New York City.
The pair is photographed heading to a dinner date with Lena Dunham in New York City ahead of the MTV Video Music Awards.
June 2022: They pack on the PDA in the Bahamas.
The two are spotted kissing and embracing in the waters of the Bahamas in a series of rare paparazzi photos shared by TMZ.
May 2022: Joe implores fans to respect their privacy.
In a GQ Hype cover interview for the magazine’s June issue, the actor expresses his desire for fans to stop “caring so much” about his and Swift’s relationship out of respect for their privacy, and says he hopes setting clear and open boundaries will help minimize the prying and commentary.
“The precedent was set—that our choice is to be private and not feed that side of things,” Alwyn tells the magazine, adding, “the more you do that, hopefully, the more that intrusiveness or intrigue drops off.”
April 2022: Joe offers rare commentary on his relationship with Taylor.
In a series of interviews throughout the month, Alwyn opens up about his relationship with Swift—from their strict boundaries around privacy to all the recent rumors surrounding their engagement.
In a conversation with Elle UK, Alwyn clarifies why he rarely discusses his relationship with Swift in interviews, saying it’s less about preserving himself than it is about pushing back against a culture that has become increasingly invasive and greedy for information.
“It’s not really [because I] want to be guarded and private, it’s more a response to something else,” he tells the magazine. “The more you give—and frankly, even if you don’t give it—something will be taken.”
He also coyly addresses the recent engagement rumors in a profile interview with WSJ. Magazine, while expanding further on his and Swift’s desire to maintain their privacy.
“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,” Alwyn says. “I mean, the truth is, if the answer was yes, I wouldn’t say, and if the answer was no, I wouldn’t say.”
And speaking with The Guardian, he shares more.
“It’s just not something I particularly care about, or have much interest in feeding,” Alwyn tells the newspaper. “The more it’s fed, the more you are opening a gate for intrusion. I think that’s just my response to a culture that has this increasing expectation that everything is going to be given. If you don’t post about the way you make your coffee in the morning, or if you don’t let someone take a picture when you walk out of your front door, is that being private? I don’t know if it is. So I just don’t really feed that. If you and I were having a conversation, and having a shandy in my house, and it wasn’t being recorded, then, of course, other things would be said.”
March 26, 2022: They attend a pre-Oscars party.
In a rare joint public outing, the two arrive at CAA’s Oscars pre-party in the San Vicente Bungalows looking happy and affectionate, sources say.
“Taylor was introducing Joe to many people around her,” an onlooker tells E! News. “She looked smitten and proud to be there with him.”
Swift and Alwyn were also “very couple-y and cute and seemed happy to be there together,” another source tells the outlet. “Taylor and Joe were together all night. He was leading her around introducing her to people, and Taylor also introducing people to Joe. When Joe was leading Taylor around he held his arm around her back.”
February 17, 2022: They look ahead to the future together, sources report.
A Life & Style insider reports that the two have secretly gotten engaged—though no further information is offered, from either additional news reports or Swift’s or Alwyn’s representatives.
Still, an Entertainment Tonight source says Swift and Alwyn have had their sights set on a long-term future together for a while now, and that they have been supportive of each other’s careers.
“Both of them have been busy with work and they completely understand how to balance hectic schedules and still make time for each other,” the insider says. “It’s part of why their relationship really works.”
February 9, 2022: Joe clarifies his exclusive relationship status with Taylor.
For the first time in several years, Alwyn publicly references Swift during an exclusive E! News interview in the run-up to his lead role in the May 2022 film adaptation of Sally Rooney’s best-selling adult-fiction romance novel, Conversations With Friends.
“I’m obviously happy in a monogamous relationship,” he tells the outlet. “I think people can do what they want and makes them happy.”
November 2021: Taylor tags along with Joe on set.
The singer visits Alwyn in Panama as filming for his upcoming movie The Stars at Noon, begins, a source tells E! News.
May 20, 2021: More engagement rumors swirl.
Entertainment Tonight cites additional rumors that Swift and Alwyn are engaged.
“They’ve discussed future plans and Taylor can see herself marrying Joe one day,” says a source, who adds that living together during lockdown has strengthened the couple’s bond. “They grew closer than ever during the quarantine and she really trusts him,” the insider says. “They’ve been continuing to be pretty low-key about their relationship to the outside world to continue to protect it.”
May 11, 2021: Taylor includes Joe in a shout-out during the BRIT Awards.
The singer gives a heartfelt shout-out to Alwyn and others while commemorating her historic win as the first-ever female recipient of the British Record Industry’s Global Icon Award.
“Thank you, Aaron Dessner; thank you, Jack Antonoff, Joe [Alwyn], Justin Vernon, the National, Marcus Mumford, Jon Low, Serban Ghenea, Laura Sisk, and Haim,” she says onstage in her acceptance speech. “I want to thank my friends and family who know exactly who they are, whose opinion of me never changed whether my stock was up or down.”
February 17, 2021: Taylor says Joe helped her find her political voice.
In a conversation with Vanity Fair, Swift opens up about the ways in which Alwyn has single-handedly influenced her political views and helped her grow more comfortable and confident speaking out politically in the wake of the 2018 midterm elections.
“As a country musician, I was always told it’s better to stay out of [politics],” the singer tells the magazine via email. “The Trump presidency forced me to lean in and educate myself. I found myself talking about government and the presidency and policy with my boyfriend [Alwyn], who supported me in speaking out.”
She continues, “I’m proud to have moved past fear and self-doubt, and to endorse and support leadership that moves us beyond this divisive, heartbreaking moment in time.”
Swift’s newly outspoken voice in politics is also made evident in “Only the Young,” an exclusive track from her 2020 Netflix documentary, Miss Americana. The track describes her feelings of heartbreak after the 2018 midterms, in which Democratic candidate Phil Bredesen—whom the singer had endorsed—lost the race for Tennessee’s open U.S. Senate seat to Republican rival Marsha Blackburn.
“There were so many young people who rallied for their candidate, whether it was a senator or congressman or congresswoman,” the singer told Variety in January 2021. “It was hard to see so many people feel like they had canvassed and done everything and tried so hard. I saw a lot of young people’s hopes dashed.”
January 14, 2021: Taylor and Joe feel ready to go more public, a source reports.
A source tells Entertainment Tonight that Swift is finally ready to share more of her famously private romance with the world.
“Taylor has gotten more and more comfortable being public with Joe and letting fans in on their romance in a way that she feels is still protecting it,” the insider says. “She loves Joe so much and, of course, is not trying to hide their relationship, but she prefers to keep specific details private.”
January 11, 2021: They are spotted out in London.
For the first time in nearly a year, the two are spotted out and about for a cozy winter stroll in London with Alwyn’s mother, Elizabeth. According to sources, Swift has been dividing her time between Nashville and London to spend time with both her family and Alwyn’s.
December 3, 2020: Engagement rumors resurface.
A second wave of engagement rumors swirls after Swift releases a preview on Instagram of her rerecorded version of hit single “Love Story,” from her 2008 album, Fearless. Hours after the release, fan theories break out on Twitter speculating that the song’s original line “Baby, just say yes” has been changed to the past tense in the new version—“Baby just said yes”—hinting at a proposal accepted.
However, several sources later tell E! News that despite how they sound to some ears, the lyrics have not changed.
Swift also doesn’t confirm these theories—but does refer to Alwyn in passing as simply her “boyfriend” in a conversation with Entertainment Weekly.
November 25, 2020: Taylor reveals that Joe cowrote several of her songs.
Swift confirms longtime fan speculation that the name William Bowery—credited as a songwriter on select tracks from Swift’s 2020 albums Folklore and Evermore—is an alias for Alwyn.
In a conversation with the album’s producers, Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, in the Disney+ film Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Dessions, the singer explicitly states that Alwyn cowrote the songs “Betty” and “Exile” from that album. “So, William Bowery is Joe … as we know,” she says.
“Joe plays piano beautifully, and he’s always just playing and making things up and kind of creating things,” she adds.
“And ‘Exile’ was crazy, because Joe had written that entire piano part,” Swift says. “He was singing the Bon Iver part—the ‘I can see you standing, honey / With his arms around your body / Laughing, but the joke’s not funny at all.’ He was just singing it. And I was entranced and asked if we could keep writing that one.”
In April 2022, Alwyn will talk about his experience collaborating with Swift—as well his reaction upon hearing Folklore had won the Grammy for Album of the Year—in a conversation with The Guardian.
“It wasn’t like, ‘It’s five o’clock, it’s time to try and write a song together,’ ” he tells the paper. “It came about from messing around on a piano, and singing badly, then being overheard, and being, like, ‘Let’s see what happens if we get to the end of it together.’ I mean, fun is such a stupid word, but it was a lot of fun. And it was never a work thing, or a ‘Let’s try and do this because we’re going to put this out’ thing. It was just like baking sourdough in lockdown. The Grammy was obviously this ridiculous bonus.”
November 13, 2020: Taylor talks her album inspiration surrounding Joe.
Speaking with Paul McCartney for Rolling Stone, Swift reveals that the actor helped inspire her Folklore song “Peace,” which is heavily rooted in her personal life.
Per Swift, the song reflects the ways in which her relationship with Alwyn has influenced her views about privacy in dating, particularly while putting on a separate public persona.
“I think that in knowing him and being in the relationship I am in now, I have definitely made decisions that have made my life feel more like a real life and less like just a storyline to be commented on in tabloids,” she says. “Whether that’s deciding where to live, who to hang out with, when to not take a picture … it’s really just trying to find bits of normalcy. That’s what that song ‘Peace’ is talking about. Like, would it be enough if I could never fully achieve the normalcy that we both crave?”
She also tells McCartney, “I know you have done a really excellent job of this in your personal life—carving out a human life within a public life, and how scary that can be when you do fall in love and you meet someone, especially if you’ve met someone who has a very grounded, normal way of living. I, oftentimes, in my anxieties, can control how I am as a person and how normal I act and rationalize things, but I cannot control if there are 20 photographers outside in the bushes and what they do and if they follow our car and if they interrupt our lives. I can’t control if there’s going to be a fake weird headline about us in the news tomorrow.”
April 29, 2020: They quarantine together.
Alwyn indirectly confirms that he and Swift are spending lockdown together when he reveals glimpses of quarantine life on his Instagram Story, including photos featuring Swift’s cat Benjamin Button underneath a rug, surrounded by the singer’s familiar antique-style home decor.
March 24, 2020: Sources report the two have discussed marriage.
Us Weekly reports that Swift and Alwyn have at this point already discussed marriage—though they are in no rush to tie the knot.
“[They] have talked about their future and marriage,” the source tells the outlet. “They don’t have a set deadline in place, but they’re very much in love.”
The insider adds, “Taylor considers Joe one of the only safe constants in her life. He has always been a huge support and stuck by her.”
February 21, 2020: They celebrate Joe’s birthday.
The pair celebrate Alwyn’s birthday with a sweet date alongside singer Ed Sheeran and his wife, Cherry Seaborn, at the Bob Bob Ricard restaurant in London’s Soho district.
“They had fun drinking champagne at the table,” an insider at the restaurant tells E! News. “They were there for several hours enjoying the night.”
February 12, 2020: They take the NME Awards.
The two get close during the New Musical Express Awards in London, just ahead of Valentine’s Day. In a video captured by an audience member, Swift gives Alwyn a kiss and a hug as she’s named winner for Best Solo Act in the World.
January 5, 2020: They take the Golden Globes.
For their first major public outing, Swift and Alwyn attend the 2020 film and television award ceremony, where Swift is a nominee for Best Original Song in a Motion Picture for “Beautiful Ghosts,” from the 2019 film adaptation of Cats; she cowrote the song with Andrew Lloyd Webber, who wrote the music for the original Broadway hit. She and Alwyn share a table and stick close to one another throughout the night, onlookers note.
October 6, 2019: They go on a sweet dinner date.
After Swift’s appearance on Saturday Night Live, she and Alwyn are spotted hand in hand later in the night on their way to dinner at Zuma in New York City.
May 8, 2018: They go (somewhat) Instagram official.
The two unintentionally soft-launch their relationship online when they make evident on Instagram their joint trip to the desert, by posting photos of themselves individually posing by the same cactus.
Alwyn later admits he didn’t realize how similar and coordinated their photos looked at the time. “I didn’t even think of that until I was in New York and someone else mentioned it,” he tells ET days later. “It wasn’t purposeful at all!”
June 7, 2017: They hang out with Taylor’s parents.
People reports that Swift has taken the step of including Alwyn in quality time with her family. “They arrived in Nashville on Friday and spent the weekend there together,” a source tells the outlet. “Joe hasn’t spent very much time with her family before, so it does seem they are getting more serious.”
The insider notes that the singer seems “relaxed and very happy” with Alwyn, and adds, “She’s enjoying being more low-key and Joe makes her laugh. They had a great weekend together.”
May 16, 2017: A source reports that they’re dating.
An insider close to the pair confirms rumors that Swift and Alwyn are together, and alleges the two have been dating for several months at this point.
“This isn’t a new couple alert or a secret relationship,” the source tells The Sun. “The only people this has been a secret to is the media because all of us—Taylor and Joe’s closest friends and their families—were aware they have been together for several months and have known each other for a long time.”
The insider notes that Swift is opting to keep this relationship especially private: “After her 1989 tour and all the attention Taylor received, she learned she had to be more protective of her personal life, and she and Joe decided early on to keep their private life private.”
May 2016: They meet at the Met Gala.
The two are rumored to have met for the first time at the 2016 Met Gala, based on a lyric from “Dress,” a track from Swift’s 2017 album Reputation. Fans speculate that lines from the song’s bridge—“Flashback when you met me / Your buzz cut and my hair bleached”—are a reference to Swift’s and Alwyn’s looks from the big event, where—indeed—they wore those hairstyles.
Sabrina Park is a Digital Fellow at HarpersBAZAAR.com where she covers news, fashion, and culture stories. When she’s not writing she loves hanging out with her cat, reading outdoors and scrolling the depths of TikTok.
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