Taylor Swift’s ex Joe Alwyn is opening up about criticism surrounding their split following their “long, loving” relationship.
The British actor, who is intensely private about his personal life, opened up for the first time about splitting from the pop superstar in a new interview with The Sunday Times published Saturday.
“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. That is a hard thing to navigate, ” Alwyn said, referring to the pair’s highly publicized breakup last year while promoting his upcoming film “Kinds of Kindness.”
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The “Conversation with Friends” star continued, saying that “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.”
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The former couple reportedly first met at the 2016 Met Gala in New York City and their courtship spurred several alleged love songs about Alwyn including “Delicate,” “Dress,” “Lover,” “Peace,” “London Boy,” “All of the Girls You Loved Before” and more about jet-setting to England for weeks at a time and lyricism that lifted the veil on their ultra-private love.
But last year, as Swift embarked on her record-breaking Eras Tour, the pair broke up. By September, Swift was seeing Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce as Alwyn faced criticism from fans and the tabloids alike who speculated about the split, which he addressed in The Times piece.
“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. 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,” he told The Times.
Alwyn added that “there’s always going to be a gap between what’s known and what’s said,” in reference to Swift’s April album “Tortured Poets” that includes the buzzy song “So Long, London.” The track is rumored to be her goodbye to the life she had with Alwyn and farewell to a city she may have called home after the Eras Tour ended.
“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 commodify and I see no reason to change that now,” Alwyn said to the British news outlet. “And, 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. I feel really good.”
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The actor has been a main inspiration for Swift’s music over the past half-decade. Her albums “Reputation,” “Lover,” “Folklore,” “Evermore,” “Midnights” and “The Tortured Poets Department” all include songs about him.
He also wrote five songs with her under the pen name “William Bowery” which include “Exile” and “Betty” on “Folklore” as well as “Champagne Problems,” “Coney Island” and “Evermore” on “Folklore” follow-up “Evermore.”
Contributing: Bryan West
