Daily Times

Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn have reportedly called it quits after six years of dating, several news outlets confirmed on Sunday. ET reported that the Lavender Haze singer and the British actor amicably broke up a few weeks ago. “The relationship had just run its course. It’s why hasn’t been spotted at any shows,” the source told the outlet. The news comes at a time when Swift is travelling the country for her Eras Tour, which is headed to Tampa, Florida next week. The couple, who always kept their relationship closely guarded, reportedly first met at the 2016 Met Gala, which was themed ‘Manus X Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology’. At the time, the singer was in a relationship with Calvin Harris with whom she broke up just a month later.

It was speculated that Swift liked Alwyn at first sight based on the lyrics of her 2017 song, ‘Dress’. “Flashback when you met me / Your buzzcut and my hair bleached,” the lyrics said. At the Met Gala, Alwyn had turned up in a shaved head while Swift opted for a platinum-blonde bob.

A few months later, she attended a Kings of Leon show with her friends, which was also attended by Alwyn. In November 2016, she was spotted attending the premiere of Alwyn’s film, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. However, the news of their rumoured relationship first emerged in May 2017. A source close to the pair told The Sun that Swift and Alwyn had been together for a few months.

“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,” the source said.

Over the next few months, the paparazzi caught the couple on camera on more than one occasion. They engaged in a rare PDA during Ed Sheeran’s concert in New York. Soft launching their relationship on Instagram, Swift and Alwyn posted photos of themselves, solo, standing next to the same cactus in May 2018.

“I didn’t even think of that until I was in New York and someone else mentioned it,” Alwyn told ET. “It wasn’t purposeful at all!” Talking about Swift for the first time, he told British Vogue in September 2018, “I’m aware people want to know about that side of things. I think we have been successfully very private and that has now sunk in for people…but I really prefer to talk about work.”

Over the next few years, they refused to talk openly about their relationship but made multiple appearances together. Eagle-eyed fans also noticed that the couple spent the quarantine together during the COVID-19 pandemic.

After Swift announced her album, Folklore, several fans speculated that William Bowery, an album collaborator, was Alwyn himself. Fans seemed to think Alwyn and Swift being spotted outside the Bowery Hotel in October 2016, coupled with the fact that Alwyn’s great-grandfather is named William, means he’s behind the pseudonym. Confirming the speculation, the singer said, “So, William Bowery is Joe…as we know. Joe plays piano beautifully and he’s always just playing and making things up and kind of creating things.”

Over the last couple of years, rumours of their decision to get engaged and married several times. However, the duo never confirmed or denied the same.