Taylor Swift’s six-year relationship with ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn: a timeline

There is speculation that Taylor Swift’s new album, which is to be released this week, will be inspired by her six-year relationship with Conversations with Friends star Joe Alwyn.

Rumours first began to fly after Swift announced the record, The Tortured Poets Department - with fans quick to notice that the album’s title bears a strong resemblance to “The Tortured Men Club”, the name of the WhatsApp group that Alwyn is known to share with fellow actors.

Swift and Alwyn split up in April last year, with a source close to the former couple citing “differences in their personalities”. Here is a look back at their time together.

When did Swift and Alwyn’s relationship start?

Swift and Alwyn kept their relationship largely private, but it is understood that they became an item in late 2016. In May 2017, The Sun reported that the pair were in a relationship, a source telling the tabloid that they had been secretly dating for a number of months.

The news that Swift and Alwyn were seeing each other came eight months after the singer had ended her romance with the actor Tom Hiddleston.

Play Taylor Swift’s Heardle game now

When did they confirm their relationship?

In December 2017, Alwyn was seen at Swift’s performance for iHeartRadio’s Jingle Ball in New York City - but it wasn’t until May 2018, almost a year after the first reports of their relationship, that they offered up confirmation - of sorts - that they were dating.

On their respective Instagram profiles, they each posted a photo of themselves posing alone under the same giant cactus - in the process letting social-media users know that they had been out and about together. Speaking to Entertainment Tonight later in 2018, Alwyn insisted that the duplication of their posts had been unintentional. “I didn’t even think of that until I was in New York and someone else mentioned it,” Alwyn said. “It wasn’t purposeful at all!”

Swift collabs with Alwyn on album

Although they generally tried to keep their relationship out of the public eye, Alwyn was seen at some of Swift’s concerts during her Reputation Tour. Meanwhile, she accompanied him to the premiere of the movie The Favourite, and stepped out with him at Golden Globe and BAFTA awards ceremonies. Despite attending events together, they didn’t tend to pose on the red carpet.

During the covid-19 pandemic, the couple began to work together on music. On Swift’s 2020 record Folklore - which won the Grammy for Album of the Year - Alwyn has writing credits on the songs “Betty” and “Exile”, under the pseudonym William Bowery. He also co-wrote tracks on the albums Evermore and Midnights.

In 2022, rumours began to surface that Swift and Alwyn were engaged. However, the actor moved to deny these claims.

Swift-Alwyn split confirmed after Eras absence

One of the final times that the couple were seen together in public came in August 2022, when they were snapped out to dinner in New York. After Alwyn didn’t attend any of Swift’s opening Eras Tour shows in early 2023, speculation began to mount that they had split - and the break-up was confirmed in April.

Soon after their separation, a source told the entertainment-news outlet People that, on top of their aforementioned personality clash, they opted to go their separate ways because Alwyn was having trouble coping with the public scrutiny that Swift’s immense fame brought.

“They had plenty in common and fell in love in a safe bubble while she was retreating from the world during Reputation,” the insider said, referring to Swift’s 2017 album, which came during the musician’s period of seclusion from public appearances. “Then the pandemic hit, and they were locked down together and able to continue growing their relationship in this insulated way. But he didn’t really ‘know’ her yet outside of that bubble.”

The source added: “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.”

When is The Tortured Poets Department released?

Swift’s 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department is due out on Friday 19 April.

The 16-song record can be pre-added/pre-saved on music streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify. It is also available to pre-order in cassette, CD and vinyl format. In some versions, the record also includes a bonus track, “The Manuscript”.