Taylor Swift announced/confirmed her split from Joe Alwyn in April 2023. The explanation for the split, at the time, was that Joe couldn’t handle Taylor’s fame or successful career, and he just wanted to be a private person. In May 2023, Taylor released a bonus track: “You’re Losing Me,” in which she seemed to indicate that she and Joe split because he wouldn’t marry her. That song was released during the height of the backlash against Swift for dating Matt Healy, a known racist. When Taylor announced The Tortured Poets Department, many thought the title was an allusion to Joe Alwyn (he said something about a “tortured man club” in an interview) and that the album would mostly be about Joe and their six-year-long relationship. It was not. TTPD is mostly about Healy, not Alwyn. So… how is Joe feeling about all of this, more than a year after their split was announced:
There’s no bad blood between Joe Alwyn and Taylor Swift. More than a year after their breakup, which PEOPLE confirmed in early April 2023, the 33-year-old actor is “doing well” and “focused on work.”
“He’s dating and happy,” a source tells PEOPLE. “He’s a great guy and not into drama in any way.”
Alwyn has “moved on” from Swift, 34, and “certainly doesn’t talk poorly about her,” the source says. “He was in love with her, and it just didn’t work out.”
The source continues of his career, “Joe loves acting, but can’t stand the attention that comes with it. He’s not comfortable in the spotlight.”
The pair’s split after six years was largely due to “differences in their personalities,” a source close to them told PEOPLE at the time.
Alwyn was always keen to keep his romance with Swift “his own personal story,” a source told PEOPLE. The relationship initially “took a lot of people by surprise,” the source added, but Alwyn “wasn’t showing off.”
It’s certainly true that Joe kept quiet about dating Swift and for six years, I don’t even recall Joe saying her name in an interview, despite journalists repeatedly asking Joe about her. All in all, I think it’s weird that JoeTay were able to make it work for as long as they did, but it’s also clear that Taylor was going through a quieter phase during that time, post-Receipts. I wonder if Joe was as surprised as everyone else that Taylor devoted so much time and space to the Healy relationship. I also wonder if Joe was surprised to learn that Taylor and Healy probably started a lot earlier than originally believed, perhaps even when Joe and Taylor were still technically together.
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