Taylor Swift Ex Joe Alwyn Weighs in on ‘The Tortured Poets Department’

If one accepts as truth that much of Taylor Swift’s newest album, The Tortured Poet’s Department, deals with her six-year relationship with English actor Joe Alwyn, his absence from the spotlight seems understandable: the record describes toxic exchanges and painful breakups, with a cast of adult male babies that puts Animal House to shame. But with a prominent role in Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos’s new film, Kinds of Kindness, Alwyn has no choice but to step back into view. And unlike some luminaries who will only agree to interviews with strict topical guidelines, it appears that questions about Taylor Swift remain within limits.

At least they were for an interview with The Sunday Times published today, in which for the first time ever, Alwyn spoke publicly about his breakup with the billionaire singer.

Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn arrive at Zuma on October 06, 2019 in New York City.

Jackson Lee

If the Swift song “Dress” is considered a reliable historical document, it appears the couple first met at the 2016 Met Gala. Swift was there because she’s Swift; Alwyn, an early-career actor, was reportedly there as actor Garrett Hedlund’s plus-one. Thus began a six-or-so-year-long relationship (depending on what clues you agree with) with a fairly definitive end point at or before April 2023.

Swift, who was mid-Eras Tour when the breakup news broke, moved on fairly swiftly, first with the 1975’s Matty Healy (also a rumored TPD subject), then with current consort, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. While those liaisons played out on the main stage, Alwyn’s life continued out of the spotlight, with rare public appearances and the occasional cryptic social media post.

Anonymous sources purportedly close to Alwyn have said that he, too, has “moved on” and is “focused on work.” And it’s that work that might force him a bit backward, if this latest interview—which, perhaps understandably, plays up his Swift connection far more prominently than his latest acting job—remains the norm.

Even Alwyn gets it, telling the Times, “I understand people’s curiosity,” when asked about Swift and TPD. And of the album, itself, he says that he “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.”

“That is a hard thing to navigate. 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.”

Looking back on the furor around their relationship, Alwyn says, “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. 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.”

Alwyn also suggests that fans and the media have been slower to move on than either he or Swift were. “Look, this is also a little over a year ago now, and I feel fortunate to be in a really great place in my life, professionally and personally,” he says.

One thing the relationship did teach him was the need to keep his personal life under as many wraps as possible. “As everyone knows, we together — both of us, mutually — decided to keep the more private details of our relationship private. It was never something to commodity, and I see no reason to change that now,” he says.

The same goes for whatever is happening in his romantic life at present, which he refuses to discuss. “I’m sure you can appreciate,” he says, “given the level of noise and scrutiny about my past relationship, why I wouldn’t want to just open the door to things like that right now.”

“I have brilliant, authentic people in my life,” he says. “I try and live in reality and away from the kind of online noise of Twitter—or wherever else it comes from—and try and just stay in the moment.”