I’ll admit it, I didn’t think Taylor Swift’s thing with Joe Alwyn would last. She met him as her thing with Tom Hiddleston (RIP Tiddles) was coming to an end, and her relationship with Joe seemed (to me) like a placeholder/jumpoff situation until she found someone more famous and interesting. But Taylor and Joe have now been together for more than four years, by far her longest relationship. There are constantly stories around about engagements or secret marriages, but I personally think Taylor is a little bit gun-shy about marriage, mostly because of finances. But still, Taylor and Joe are basically already married. They live together, they work together, they raise cats together. And so here’s People Mag’s story about all of that:
Taylor Swift and boyfriend Joe Alywn’s “Love Story” is going strong. In this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, a source close to the superstar, 31, says she “is very happy” with the British actor, 29, whom she has dated for more than four years.
“He is her rock,” says the source. “Their relationship is mature and wonderful.”
While the source says that Swift “loves” that she and Alwyn “have been able to keep their relationship so private” since they started dating in 2016, the singer has been more open about him in recent months. Quarantining together amid the pandemic, the couple bonded even further by cowriting songs. After months of speculation, Swift confirmed in her Disney+ documentary Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, which premiered in November, that “William Bowery” — the mystery songwriter on her Grammy-nominated surprise summer album folklore — is, in fact, Alwyn.
“I heard Joe singing the entire fully formed chorus of ‘Betty’ from another room, and I just was like, ‘Hello,'” Swift revealed in the film about the folklore track. “I came in and I was like, ‘Hey, this could be really weird and we could hate this, [but] 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?'”
Swift has since teamed up with Alwyn for three more songs on her new album evermore, which dropped as a surprise for fans on Dec. 11. On the record, Alwyn (under his “William Bowery” pseudonym) is credited as a co-writer on three songs — “Champagne Problems,” “Coney Island” and evermore’s title track — but is happy to stay behind the scenes.
“Taylor was very excited to share a second album with fans, and Joe has been supportive as always,” the source says. “He is a very laidback person.”
In 2021, Swift likely won’t be slowing down, as she’s nominated for six Grammys at the annual awards ceremony being held on Jan. 31. But first, says the source, she and Alwyn “are looking forward to celebrating Christmas together.”
I think Joe probably is really laid-back, and that’s what Taylor needs. While I don’t really consider Taylor to be “high-strung,” I think she can be high-strung-adjacent and she needs someone calm and kind of boring to center her and get her to chill out. Tom Hiddleston wasn’t that guy. Calvin Harris wasn’t really that guy either. Anyway, there’s all the William Bowery news that’s fit to print. I have no idea why she insists on pseudonyms if she’s just going to tell people that Joe cowrote the songs anyway.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Taylor’s social media, Backgrid.
To be fair, with the fake names, fans put the pieces together and eventually guessed it.
I think this is PR from Taylor’s side after accusations of Joe abusing her started to come up after her appearance with Kimmel (she made a hand gesture that’s apparently a gesture to signal for help). My guess that it was a coincidence since I notice Taylor tends to use similar gestures when she’s thinking, but this is such a touchy subject for good reason.
What?!
Yes – please do tell more!
I don’t think it’s fair to speculate abuse based on perceived hand gestures. People sometimes read too much into things that aren’t there.
What’s the hand gesture? Can you link the video? 😮
I just had to look this up, because I’ve never heard about it before and think it is a huuuge stretch and too common of a hand movement to signal anything that should be taken so seriously. Apparently if you hold your hand up and close your fingers when your thumb is already folded it means you need help. I just think Taylor makes those type of hand movements all the time and it means nothing. She just has an almost overly emphatic way of talking with lots of gestures.
Eh with the lesbians losing their minds over these two albums (see: the Betty discourse), and all the speculation about Kaylor (Karlie and Taylor), I think this is more a piece to suppress any gay gossip abt Taylor… maybe someone has more receipts abt Kaylor or someone wants to come forward idk. This seems suspect in terms of timing, and I don’t think it’s Joe-related. Lesbian Twitter is in full-force abt these two albums are Taylor’s full admission that she’s gay…
“Taylor’s full admission that she’s gay”
… what?
It’s a very gay album. She’s always written things that people pass off as being about boys because she’s always presented herself as so “boy crazy” but I genuinely believe she used PR relationships to cover real relationships with women (I do think she’s really with Joe now, though). I’m not a conspiracy theorist type at all, but it’s no secret Taylor’s image is highly manufactured and always has been.
@Case I’m a little confused why you refer to Taylor as gay (well, her album) but acknowledge she’s with Joe. Bisexuality is a thing, and while I’m sure you’re not trying to erase that, many people do. So again, I find it an odd and ill suited word choice here, unless I’m missing something and Taylor has used that word herself.
Potentially this, and also her Evermore album has a lot of really depressing break-up songs (some of which she wrote with Joe which is kind of weird to me but whatever) so I imagine this may also be out there to try to dispel the idea that these songs mean they broke up.
Just googled. This tweet has the clip: https://twitter.com/metesizlik/status/1339086076678443008.
She does the gesture just as she’s pronouncing the word “code”. It does look kinda odd…
Wow – I had no idea that hand signal is used as a cry for help. I actually do that all the time and apparently have since I was a baby. I never noticed until someone I worked with pointed it out to me back in 2007. They said that holding your thumb is a comforting thing that all babies do and apparently the behavior sticks with some people. I guess I’m one of them. I don’t even realize I’m doing it and then I look down and I’m holding my thumb. Yikes! I hope nobody comes after my boyfriend!!
With all her money, she’s smart not to get married. Maybe she should do what Jennifer Aniston did and have a wedding but no legal marriage (after Covid is over, obviously).
If I was rich and famous I would never get married. You can have a fulfilling relationship, kids etc and still not sign a legal contract that it’s a disaster to get out of. If a relationship comes to a natural end in 10/20 years at least thats one more thing to not worry about.
I know theres probably considerations about next of kin etc, I’m sure you could work something out about that though.
Jennifer Aniston did that??? Where have I been that I didn’t know that?
IIRC there was no record of a marriage license and no record, to date, of a divorce filing so rumor is Jennifer and Justin Theroux were never legally married.
I agree! Shakira is doing the same thing. Shakira is worth around 500 M according to the internet (which makes sense she is one of the top selling Latin and international acts of the Soundscan era), and her husband is worth much less — like at around 50 M.
No one wants a Mary J Blige situation, where you are paying alimony to a guy because he was your man even though he didn’t have your wealth.
William Bowery is Joe’s version of Sasha Fierce, and that’s fine with me!
I think I’m more surprised that the Tiddleston fling was 4 years ago. Wow time flies!
Loved Tom Hiddleston in The Night Manager. He had amazing chemistry with Elizabeth Debicki but NONE with Taylor so I wonder if they had a mutually beneficial PR business relationship. Glad she seems happy now. My granddaughters are huge fans.
I’m a December baby and I need my calm, laid back husband too.
She loves love but i dont think she like any mature relationship problems.
Joe looks like a really laid back guy that doesnt care about drama.
Maybe this will work.
Im a bit astrology obsessed and noticed that im getting along well with my younger 29yr old guy so i looked up his sign and hes a Pisces. Im a Sag. I just looked up Joes sign and hes a Pisces too. Obviously this is overly simplified; so many other things are determinants in an rship especially common values. But i found it interesting. I think most Pisces are heavy water and heavy air which merges well with fire signs who may be equally heavy water and perhaps lacking in air. They share a common sensitivity and empathetic approach to humanity so they get each other and Pisces with gemini influences really are good at communicating which greatly helps the rship. I think sometimes a sensitive soul just wants that reflected back to them. It helps when money is not an issue i suppose.
I like them together. He seems to ground her; and her fame doesn’t seem to threaten his ego, which is nice.
Also, my husband was a jump-off…or was supposed to be…24 years ago.
About the pseudonym thing, I have two theories:
1. Initially when the folklore was released (which was big, considering her status, and the way it was released), people (ordinary folk) would have shifted their attention to their relationship, instead of the songs they wrote together, effectively overshadowing the songs;
2. Taylor Swift’s way of protecting Joe and not putting undue pressure on him when his songs debuted. Imaging if the songs had been a total flop after so much scrutiny was put on him, he would have been crushed. I get the impression that Joe has confidence issues (his Wikipedia page, his interviews, and the songs Taylor wrote about him: Peace and New Year’s Day).
This is my theory that may have been clownish:
The thing about her with Joe and Tom was she had met Joe before she met Tom. Lyric evidence indicated she and Joe met when she was still with Calvin, and I had a theory based on Google Trends and her lyrics that they probably met in Feb 2016 at The Bowery Bistro at Sunset and Vine in LA, and probably was introduced by Garrett Hedlund. She already had a crush for Joe at that initial meeting. I also believe she got Joe the Met Gala invitation, and Joe brought Garrett Hedlund all along. She probably wanted to see him to verify if that initial attraction was still there, as her relationship with Calvin was disintegrating fast. At Met Gala, she wanted to get Joe’s attention, and so typically she used Tom and did that Met Gala dance with him.
Based on Delicate, Cornelia Street, and possibly another song that I forgot the name, she and Joe hooked up shortly after or around the time she and Calvin broke up and certainly before her dalliance with Tom. I think there was a miscommunication and possibly Joe was not single at the time (there were rumours and then there were her subtle lyrics), and probably wary of her serial dating short-live romance reputation, Joe was reluctant to plunge in at that time and tossed it as just a summer thing or even just a one-time drunk accident (that infamous dive bar). She was hurt, and possibly suffered a bruised ego by his rejection, so she agreed to see Tom (there were reports that Tom sent her countless flowers after Met Gala), to run away again from her attraction to Joe and even possibly to get back at Joe (So it goes, Daylight lyrics). I mean even those people who are familiar with her were saying this was not at all like her when she showmanced with Tom that July. But alas, the attraction was too strong, and was taken a toll on her mental health. I checked a pap pic when she returned to NY at the start of August, she was showing mental distress the moment she got off the car and before she was ready to put on a face. So she agreed with Joe’s offer and played the game. That August was the time the whole Cruel Summer and Cornelia Street were about. Girl lost the game when she said “I love you” the first. This also explains a lot why she was always insecure with the whole relationship with Joe, her hiding with Joe, her lyrics about Joe, and the whole interaction between she and Joe.
So yes, she wasn’t into Tom for any moment, and the minute she got to be with Joe, Tom became history.