On April 8th, 2023, the world stopped for Swifties, a.k.a. Taylor Swift fans. When Entertainment Tonight announced the breakup of Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn, they couldn’t believe it and entered a period of mourning. Taylor Swift, singer and songwriter, and Joe Alwyn, actor, had been romantically linked for the past six years. During those six years, the pair kept their relationship mostly private. Because of this, the general public did not know much about their relationship, but Swifties were keeping track. Let’s take a look into their relationship: 

May 2nd, 2016

There was never confirmation on how the pair met. However, fans assume that the two met at the Met Gala in 2016. This is because of a lyric from the song named “Dress” on her sixth studio album, Reputation, an album that Taylor confirmed was about Joe: 

“Flashback when you met me/Your buzzcut and my hair bleached/Even in my worst times/You could see the best of me”

Indeed, Joe had a buzzcut, and Taylor had her hair bleached.

May 16th, 2017

According to the Sun, Taylor and Joe had been dating for several months at this point. 

Throughout the next few months the pair are spotted in New York and Nashville. 

November 17th, 2018

Swift releases her sixth studio album, Reputation. Fans speculate that many of the songs could be about Joe. 

May 7th, 2018 

Joe and Taylor post coordinating cactus Instagram posts. This is the first time the two hint towards their relationship on social media. Taylor posted her’s on May 7th, and his post followed the day after. 

May 8th, 2017

Taylor kicks off her Reputation world tour. Joe is spotted at her concerts, and a video of him during the song “Gorgeous” went viral. He couldn’t contain his smile and blushed adorably throughout the song (he also made sure to look around and see if anyone caught his grin.)

Throughout the following months, the couple start to mention each other in interviews. 

February 10th, 2019 

Taylor and Joe make their official award ceremony debut at the British Academy Film Awards. The songwriter skipped out on the 2019 Grammy Awards despite being nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album in support of Joe, who’s movie took home seven BAFTA awards that night! 

August 23, 2019

Lover is released. The ULTIMATE love album – fans freak out and dissect the songs. Every single lyric on the album is about being in love, showing fans a glimpse into how happy they are. Taylor is in her Lover era — literally. 

January 20th, 2020

The pair attend the Golden Globes together. Taylor was nominated for an award because of her songwriting on the movie, Cats. The two attended the red carpet separately, but they were seated together inside. Many bystanders stated that the couple looked very happy and were chatting away the entire night. 

January 31st, 2020 

Taylor releases her documentary, Miss Americana. She doesn’t explicitly state his name in the documentary when talking about how she fell in love, but Joe is spotted in the movie greeting her after she finished performing and her kissing his hand in the car.

April 29th, 2020

Joe posts Taylor’s cat, Benjamin, on his Instagram. This was another nod towards their relationship. 

July 24th, 2020

Folklore, Taylor’s eighth studio album, is released and a writer named William Bowery is credited on a few songs. Fans speculate who William Bowery could possibly be, and many conclude that it was Joe who was writing under a pseudonym. The name William was Alwyn’s great grandfather’s name, and Bowery was the name of the area in New York City that Joe spent a lot of time in. 

November 25th, 2020

In Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, Swift confirms the identity of William Bowery, and the Swifties were correct! Joe was indeed writing under a pseudonym of William Bowery. 

This was not the end of William Bowery, however. He continues to write under this name on Taylor’s future albums. 

March 12th, 2021 

Folklore wins Album of the Year at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. During her acceptance speech, one of the people Taylor thanked was Joe. “I’d like to thank… Joe, who is the first person that I play every single song I write, and I had the best time writing songs with you in quarantine.”

Due to covid-19, the pair was not spotted in public that often, but Joe was still posting Taylor’s cats on social media, giving fans a sense of reassurance that the two were still together. 

November 21st, 2022

Taylor releases her tenth studio album, Midnights. The album is a mixture of love and heartbreak – for a more detailed review, check out this article!

March 17th, 2023

“The Eras Tour” kicks off in Glendale, Arizona, and Joe is not spotted at the show. 

April 8th, 2023

Entertainment Tonight announces that the pair have broken up and split before the tour started. 

April 9th, 2023 

People Magazine reports that a source close to the pair stated their split was due to the differences in their personalities.

“Joe has struggled with Taylor’s level of fame and the attention from the public. The differences in their personalities have also become harder to ignore after years together. They’ve grown apart.”

Since the breakup, fans have realized that the setlist change from “invisible string” to “the 1” was probably due to the breakup. “invisible string” is a song about being soulmates with a person, and, on the other hand, “the 1” is a song about losing someone who could have been “the one”. Also, many of Taylor’s close friends and family such as Austin Swift, Ryan Reynolds, the HAIM sisters, Gigi Hadid, and Lily Aldridge have unfollowed Joe on Instagram. 

At CHS, some Swifties aren’t falling for this rumor. Sydney Migardos, a junior at CHS, stated that she thinks these are just rumors due to a multitude of reasons. One reason is because of a song on Midnights. In the song “Paris”, Taylor talks about how she values keeping her relationship private from the world: “Privacy sign on the door/And on my page and on the whole world/Romance is not dead if you keep it just yours”. Migardos continues on to say that “she wrote that on purpose, there had to have been a reason.” Regarding the set list change, she stated that “the change happened during the tour, it wasn’t [like that from] the beginning.” If they had truly broken up before the tour, the setlist change would have never happened. 

Sophomore, Tiana Mattessich, feels similarly: “I don’t think that they broke up because the media has been up in Taylor’s relationship business for a long time, so I think the media made these rumors because they simply haven’t seen Joe at any of her shows yet.” When asked about the unfollowing on social media, she explains how “it’s honestly so creepy how the media is tracking which celebrity follows or unfollows a person each day.” 

Neither Taylor nor Joe’s representatives have made any official comment on these rumors, and due to the fame of the couple, there is a high unlikelihood of fans getting an official confirmation on their breakup.