The news of Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn‘s break up hit us hard. With rumors flying for months that the long-time couple were engaged, married or even planning a family, hearing that Swift’s longest relationship (that we all thought would be her one true love) was over felt as devastating as, well, our own splits.
Given the couple were together for over six years, there is a lot to unpack here. Let’s take a look back at the day these two met — and what happened in the lead-up to their break up.
May 2016
Joe Alwyn and Taylor Swift are strongly rumored to have met at the 2016 Met Gala. While this was the same Met Gala where Swift met (and went on to date) Tom Hiddleston, it’s the lyrics from her song “Dress” on album Reputation that fuel this theory. “Flashback to when you met me, your buzzed cut and my hair bleached,” the song goes, the exact haircuts of Alwyn and Swift at that time respectively.
October 2016
A few months later, the couple are spotted at a Kings of Leon concert. While Taylor Swift attended with friends, fans later figured out that Alwyn was also at the same show. Did they attend together?
November 2016
Again, the pair appeared at the same event — this time, at Alwyn’s film premiere Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. However, Taylor Swift attended with friends and there is no evidence she and Alwyn caught up.
May 2017
The first reports that Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn were dating appeared in The Sun in May 2017. A source supposedly close to the couple said, “This isn’t a new couple alert or a secret relationship — 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.”
June 2017
Joe Alwyn and Taylor Swift were spotted in Nashville — allegedly, Alwyn had flown into town to meet Swift’s parents. The same month, Swift’s best friend Selena Gomez alluded to the relationship during an interview with SiriusXM. When asked if they had been on double dates together, she said that while they hadn’t she was excited for Swift. “Honestly, if my friends are happy, that makes me happy. That’s all I care about.”
July 2017
One month later, the couple are snapped by paparazzi leaving Swift’s apartment in New York.
October 2017
Late 2017 is when Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn seemed more comfortable making their relationship publicly official. For the release of “Gorgeous” off Reputation, Swift allegedly told fans at a listening session that the song was about Alwyn. When the album was released a month later, fans connected many lyrics to the actor, and it became apparent that their rumored relationship was pretty certain.
May 2018
The couple shared photos that linked them for the first time on social media in May 2018, both posing in front of the same cactus tree in a national park.
September 2018
Joe Alwyn began being asked about his relationship with Taylor Swift in 2018, and it often came up in interviews for his upcoming films and television shows. From the outset, he was determined to keep things private. “I’m aware people want to know about that side of things,” he told British Vogue. “I think we have been successfully very private and that has now sunk in for people…but I really prefer to talk about work.”
November 2018
Taylor Swift supported Joe Alwyn on her Instagram in November 2018, sharing this clip of the actor in the film The Favourite.
December 2018
Despite getting fairly terse when asked about his relationship by GQ in November, saying “Someone’s private life is, by definition, private. No one is obliged to share their personal life,” and refusing to name his favorite Swift song, Alwyn did slightly open up to Esquire in December about dating in Hollywood. “I didn’t seek out advice on that,” he told the publication, referring to dating someone as famous as Swift and whether he sought advice from friends and family. “Because I know what I feel about it. I think there’s a very clear line as to what somebody should share, or feel like they have to share, and what they don’t want to and shouldn’t have to.”
Jan 2019
In early 2019 Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn attended a few events together, although they still remained very low key. In January while both were in attendance at the Golden Globes (Swift presented Best Original Score and Best Original Song, Alwyn was there in support of his film The Favourite), the couple shared a few cute moments backstage, according to Us Weekly.
“While Taylor presented, Joe watched the teleprompter near him and smiled and Nicholas Hoult patted him on the back,” the source told the outlet. “After Gaga walked on stage, Joe shifted his gaze to the stage near Taylor. She was smiling at him while she walked off the stage. She looked over her shoulder and gave a sassy cute little smile at his table’s direction.”
Feb 2019
In huge news, Taylor Swift missed the 2019 Grammy Awards to attend the BAFTAs — or at least the after party, where she was snapped walking out of the event hand-in-hand with Joe Alwyn in a lush Stella McCartney coat.
August 2019
When Swift’s album Lover landed in August 2019, fans went wild reading into the lyrics. The two songs that fans deduced alluded to Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn being either engaged or even already married were “Lover” and “Paper Rings.”
Swift also spoke candidly about why she kept their relationship private, telling The Guardian, “I’ve learned that if I do, people think it’s up for discussion, and our relationship isn’t up for discussion. If you and I were having a glass of wine right now, we’d be talking about it — but it’s just that it goes out into the world. That’s where the boundary is, and that’s where my life has become manageable. I really want to keep it feeling manageable.”
January 2020
After spending Thanksgiving and Christmas together, the couple entered 2020 by attending the Golden Globes together. While they didn’t walk the red carpet for photos, there was plenty of footage of the pair seated next to each other at the same table.
TAYLOR & JOE. WE REPEAT: TAYLOR & JOE. 😍 #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/34NtBYsmCJ
— E! News (@enews) January 6, 2020
That same month, Taylor Swift’s highly anticipated documentary Miss Americana dropped on Netflix. It offered rare insight into the star’s private life, including struggles with disordered eating and dark periods over the years of her success. Most notably from a relationship perspective, Swift mentioned Alwyn as this bright spark occurring while she was rebuilding after the Kim Kardashian/Kanye West conflict. “I had to reconstruct an entire belief system for my own personal sanity. I also was falling in love with someone who had a wonderfully normal, balanced life.”
Later, a scene in which Swift sings “Call It What You Want” to someone (assumed to be Alwyn), she mouths “I love you.” Alwyn is also seen backstage at Swift’s concerts, hugging the singer.
February 2020
Footage was shared of Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn embracing after the singer won Best Solo Act at the NME Awards.
Taylor winner of Best Solo Act in the World annonced, the hug I’m dying #NMEAwards2020 pic.twitter.com/yaOKMjXiSF
— sophie 🌶 (@sophklore) February 13, 2020
Marriage rumors also sparked up again around this period, with Us Weekly reporting, “[They] have talked about their future and marriage. They don’t have a set deadline in place, but they’re very much in love.”
The source also shared, “Taylor considers Joe one of the only safe constants in her life. He has always been a huge support and stuck by her.”
April 2020
Fans went wild in April when Joe Alwyn shared Instagram Stories of Taylor Swift’s cats, confirming that the couple were going through COVID-19 lockdown together.
July 2020
When Taylor Swift released her album folklore, there was a new name in her collaborator list — William Bowery. Swift tagged all other songwriters and producers on social media, except for the elusive Bowery. Later, it was revealed that Bowery was a pseudonym for Joe Alwyn, who did co-write some of the songs on the album.
November 2020
Taylor Swift opened up most extensively about her relationship with Joe Alwyn in a Rolling Stone interview later that year. “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 told Paul McCartney, who interviewed her for the piece.
“Whether that’s deciding where to live, who to hang out with, when to not take a picture — the idea of privacy feels so strange to try to explain, but it’s really just trying to find bits of normalcy. That’s what that song ‘Peace’ is taking about. Like, would it be enough if I could never fully achieve the normalcy that we both crave?”
November 2020
In the Disney+ film folklore: the long pond studio sessions, Swift opened up about Alwyn’s involvement in the album. She explained that Alwyn was singing the entire chorus of “betty” in another room, which Swift then suggested be fleshed out as an album track. “So this was the first time we had a conversation where I came in and I was like, ‘Hey, this could be really weird, and we could hate this, so because we’re in quarantine and there’s nothing else going on, could we just try to see what it’s like if we write this song together?’” she says in the film.
She also said Alwyn “plays piano beautifully and he’s always just playing and making things up and kind of creating things,” which is how the song “exile” began.
Engagement rumors swirled again around this period, too — but Swift was quick to shut them down in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, in which discussed the making of folklore and referenced Alwyn as her boyfriend. “The only people who knew were the people that I was making it with, my boyfriend, my family, and then my management team. So that’s the smallest number of people I’ve ever had know about something.”
The next month, Swift’s album evermore was released — with several more songs credited to William Bowery.
May 2021
After winning the Global Icon award at the BRITs, Swift publicly thanked Alwyn. “The world changed, and I ended up putting out three albums instead, so making folklore and evermore was one of the most unique, cathartic, extraordinary experiences I’ve ever had. I would love the opportunity to thank the amazing creative people that I made those albums with. Thank you, Aaron Dessner, thank you Jack Antonoff, Joe [Alwyn, Swift’s boyfriend], Justin Vernon, the National, Marcus Mumford, Jon Low, Serban Ghenea, Laura Sisk, and HAIM. 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.”
An extra special speech from @taylorswift13 as she receives the BRITs Global Icon Award 💕 #BRITs pic.twitter.com/kZ7EGSIv7Y
— BRIT Awards (@BRITs) May 11, 2021
Feb 2022
As per E!, Joe Alwyn made another rare statement regarding his relationship in February 2022, during promotion for his series Conversations with Friends. “I think people can do what they want and makes them happy. I’m obviously happy in a monogamous relationship,” he said.
March 2022
During the rounds of publicity for Conversations with Friends, Alwyn made several statements about his relationship. Most notably, he told Wall Street Journal that he would never confirm nor deny engagement rumors. “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. I mean, the truth is, if the answer was yes, I wouldn’t say, and if the answer was no, I wouldn’t say.”
November 2022
Alwyn posted more photos of Taylor Swift’s cats in November, continuing confirmation that the couple were living together.
February 2023
Again in February 2023, Joe Alwyn shared photos of Taylor Swift’s cats.
March 2023
However, even though People reported that Joe Alwyn would be attending Taylor Swift’s shows during her Eras tour when he could, with a source saying “Joe will travel with her when he can. They are great together. Joe is super supportive of her career,” Alwyn doesn’t appear at any events.
April 2023
The news no Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn fan ever wanted to hear landed on the 8th April, 2023. Entertainment Tonight reported that the couple had broke up several weeks prior, describing it as amicable. “The relationship had just run its course,” a source told the outlet. “It’s why [Alwyn] hasn’t been spotted at any shows.” People then confirmed the news.
Later that month, People released another article detailing the break up. “They’ve had rough patches before and always worked things out, so friends thought they would take some time apart but eventually come back together,” a source told the outlet, adding that “ultimately, [they] weren’t the right fit for one another.”
The source also said that their relationship blossomed due to the “bubble” of the pandemic, where they shared a very private life. “[Alwyn] has struggled with Taylor’s level of fame and the attention from the public,” the source said. “The differences in their personalities have also become harder to ignore after years together. They’ve grown apart.”
Next, Taylor Swift was spotted having dinner near Cornelia Street, where she once lived with Alwyn. The location may have been intentional — lyrics from the song “Cornelia Street” off the album Lover read, “And I hope I never lose you, hope it never ends / I’d never walk Cornelia Street again / That’s the kinda heartbreak time could never mend.”
