Joe Alwyn Opens Up About Split from Taylor Swift For the First Time
Taylor Swift may have said so long, London, but that doesn’t mean her memories with Joe Alwyn are forgotten.
Although the couple parted ways in April 2023 after six years together, there will always be a host of reminders of their relationship—and some eagle-eyed fans have spotted one in a recent, behind-the scenes-look into the making of the Bejeweled music video.
In the video shared to YouTube Dec. 13—two years after the music video first came out in October 2022—Taylor directs one of the actors during a scene while holding her phone in her hand. As she’s gestures, her phone screen lights up and her wallpaper is revealed.
At the time of filming, which occurred months before Joe and Taylor’s breakup, Taylor’s phone background was a picture of the couple sitting and cuddling. In the image, Taylor leaned her head on Joe’s shoulder, her arms wrapped around his chest as he held onto her legs.
And while Taylor is happily dating Travis Kelce, for those fans who noticed the callback to her last relationship, they still felt all the feels.
“Seeing the wallpaper with Joe Alwyn always make me sobbing still,” one user commented on the YouTube video, while a fan account posted, alongside a screenshot of the moment, a reference to Taylor’s Tortured Poets Department lyrics, “My beloved ghost and me sitting in a tree.”
Indeed, fans have noted that much of the Grammy winner’s latest studio album appears to reference her time with the Favourite actor, including the song “So Long, London,” which chronicles the former couple’s time together in the city as well as alludes to the reason for their breakup.
YouTube/Taylor Swift
“You swore that you loved me but where were the clues,” Taylor sings in the track. “I died on the altar waiting for the proof / You sacrificed us to the gods of your bluest days / And I'm just getting color back into my face / I'm just mad as hell cause I loved this place."
For his part, Joe didn’t break his silence on their split until over a year later, when he got candid about navigating a relationship in the public eye.
"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 told The Sunday Times in an interview published in June. "That is a hard thing to navigate."
The 33-year-old added of the public nature of dating one of the most popular artists in the world, "What is unusual and abnormal in this situation is that, one week later, it's suddenly in the public domain and the outside world is able to weigh in."
Gilbert Flores/Golden Globes 2024/Golden Globes 2024 via Getty Images & Craig Barritt/Getty Images for TIME
And Joe emphasized that neither him nor Taylor will reveal what truly ended their relationship.
"So you have something very real suddenly thrown into a very unreal space: tabloids, social media, press, where it is then dissected, speculated on, pulled out of shape beyond recognition," he continued. "And the truth is, to that last point, there is always going to be a gap between what is known and what is said. I have made my peace with that."
And the Kinds of Kindness star affirmed some details would forever be kept private—as he and Taylor always intended.
"As everyone knows, we together—both of us, mutually—decided to keep the more private details of our relationship private," he explained. "It was never something to commodify and I see no reason to change that now."
For more of the relationship easter eggs in Taylor’s The Tortured Poets Department, keep reading.
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