Taylor Swift has been dating Joe Alwyn for nearly six years, and their relationship timeline proves they keep their love life private — even in her music.
Celebrity
The couple’s six-year relationship is inspiring more love songs on Swift’s new album Midnights.
Taylor Swift is one of the most impactful singer-songwriters of our time, thanks in part to her honest, and at-times brutal hits about love, heartbreak, and everything in between. But she’s been singing a lot less about heartbreak lately — at least her own — and fans have Swift’s boyfriend (and potential fiancé) Joe Alwyn to thank for that. Swift and Alwyn have been together for nearly six years, with rumors of their engagement even being reported in February 2022.
The 11-time Grammy winner began documenting her love story with the British actor on her 2017 album Reputation, which covers how they first connected in songs like “Delicate” and “Gorgeous,” and then hid from the public as they reportedly started to date amid her controversy with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, as told in “King of My Heart” and “Call It What You Want.” Her 2019 follow-up Lover sparked marriage rumors thanks to songs like “Paper Rings” and the title track, which is complete with wedding vows as a bridge. Swift has already teased one new love song inspired by their relationship, “Lavender Haze,” on her 2022 album Midnights, and there very well may be more.
The singer’s 2020 surprise albums Folklore and Evermore aren’t as focused on her love life, with Swift only touching upon her relationship with Alwyn on the confessional “Peace,” but he’s involved on both albums in a much more meaningful way. The actor is credited as a songwriter on two Folklore songs and three Evermore songs under the pen name William Bowery, whose identity was kept a secret for months. And when Folklore won Album of the Year at the 2021 Grammy Awards, it meant that Alwyn became a Grammy winner as well. It remains to be seen whether Alwyn, or Bowery, will be involved creatively again on Midnights.
The couple is notoriously private about their relationship, even as they’ve collaborated professionally. However, Swift and Alwyn’s relationship timeline proves that they’re in it for the long haul. If you’re rooting for their happily ever after like most Swifties are, revisit their most important milestones (that we know of) below.
According to the lyrics of “Dress,” Swift and Alwyn likely met at the 2016 Met Gala. In the song, she sings, “Flashback to when you met me, your buzzed cut and my hair bleached.” At that year’s event, Alwyn’s hair was buzzed, and Swift’s hair was bleached. There’s no confirmation on this beyond the lyrics, but it’s as close as we may get. Swift and Alwyn didn’t get together right after meeting, though. At this point, Swift’s breakup with Calvin Harris had not yet been reported, and she had not even started dating Tom Hiddleston.
It wasn’t until a year after they met that the first rumors of a romance between Swift and Alwyn surfaced. The two had been dating for a while at that point, but they wanted to keep things as quiet as possible, a habit they would continue to follow in the coming years.
A month after dating reports emerged, Swift and Alwyn were seen in Nashville looking happy together. This sighting was a big deal since Swift hadn’t been rumored to have been dating anyone since her ill-fated fling with Hiddleston.
Swift wanted fans who were invited to her private Reputation Secret Sessions to spread the word that her love songs on Reputation, including “Gorgeous,” are about Alwyn. Swift has yet to confirm this tidbit of news, as she typically never reveals the subjects of her relationship songs, but who else would she trust with these important details more than the Swifties? When the album was released, Swift’s intricately detailed lyrics only fueled rumors that Reputation was in part inspired by her love life with Alwyn.
Fans spotted Swift and Alwyn together when she played Capital FM’s Jingle Bell Ball concert in London in late 2017. As fate would have it, the pair were reportedly dancing to Ed Sheeran’s set, who was featured on Reputation and had recently gave Alwyn his approval, saying, “He’s a cool dude.” In addition to their dancing, attendees apparently saw Alwyn and Swift slow dancing and kissing.
In May 2018, as she was preparing to kick off her Reputation Stadium Tour, Swift and Alwyn both posted similar photos on their Instagram pages one day apart, and observant eyes took note of what appeared to be the same cactus plant next to the couple in their individual snapshots. As obvious as the connection seemed to their followers, Alwyn later told British GQ that he and Swift didn’t post their desert romp photos to give people more insight into their relationship. “I didn’t even think of it until I was in New York and someone else mentioned it,” he said in October 2018.
For the first time since rumors of their relationship emerged, Alwyn publicly spoke about Swift in an interview with British Vogue, although he didn’t disclose much information at all — not even her name. “I’m aware people want to know about that side of things,” he said. “I think we have been successfully very private, and that has now sunk in for people. But I really prefer to talk about work.”
In December 2018, as he was promoting four different films, Alwyn spoke about his roles in those projects and gave hungry fans a few more crumbs about his relationship with Swift. He told Esquire in 2018 that he refused to seek any outside advice while dating Swift. “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,” he said.
