Taylor Swift’s Emotional Speech About Tortured Poets Has Added Fuel to All Those Joe Alwyn Fan Theories

Taylor Swift got emotional with the Eras Tour crowd in Melbourne, Australia.

During her latest concert, Swift surprised fans by playing her heart-wrenching ballad “You’re Losing Me” live—something she’s never done before. But first she spoke a bit about her upcoming album, The Tortured Poets Department. “I needed to make it. It was really a lifeline for me,” Swift said, per fan-recorded videos. “It sort of reminded me of why songwriting is something that actually gets me through life. And I’ve never had an album where I’ve needed songwriting more than I needed it on Tortured Poets.”

Swift also teased new album art for a special vinyl of Tortured Poets, called The Bolter Edition, before launching into the Midnights bonus track largely believed to be about the crumbling of her relationship with one Joe Alwyn. She later shared a peek at the album on Instagram, which features an exclusive bonus song, “The Bolter.”

Add all this together, and Swifties are more convinced than ever that Tortured Poets is going to be a visceral look into the final moments of her six-year relationship with Joe Alwyn, as well as the aftermath of the breakup. “This speech followed by ‘You’re Losing Me’…Joe Alwyn you will begin to cough in three days,” one user wrote on X.com.

One fan connected the song title “The Bolter” to a past video of Alwyn and Swift sprinting to their vehicle to avoid paparazzi—behavior she has not continued with her new partner, Travis Kelce. “The real meaning of ‘The Bolter’ is this video,” the fan wrote on X.com alongside the clip. “Joe Alwyn you are so over.”

In fact, some fans now suspect that “You’re Losing Me” was initially written for Tortured Poets before Swift decided to release it as a Midnights bonus track back in May 2023, just one month after her split with Alwyn went public.

When she first announced the new album at the Grammys earlier this month, she revealed it was two years in the making. “Okay, this is my 13th Grammy. My lucky number; I don’t know if I’ve ever told you that,” Swift joked after being given the award for best pop vocal album. “I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I’ve been keeping from you for the last two years.”

Fans quickly put the timeline and clues together, noting that Taylor Swift was still in a relationship with Alwyn back in 2022, and that the actor was once a part of a group chat called The Tortured Man Club. Further, the album’s April 19 release date is the one-year anniversary of the day a large group of Swift’s inner-circle unfollowed Alwyn on Instagram.

I’m not saying the fans are right about all their suspicions, but they continue to make a strong case. However, before we all go “cursing Joe Alwyn’s entire bloodline,” remember that he’s a real human being who doesn’t deserve to be bullied and harassed online. Let’s all take a deep breath and stream “Happiness” from Folklore.