Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn have successfully kept their relationship a secret for four years.
Unlike the 30-year-old singer’s previous relationships with stars like Joe Jonas, Calvin Harris and Tom Hiddleston, Swift’s romance with Alwyn has developed behind closed doors and away from cameras.
From wearing disguises to dodging press questions, the “Love Story” singer and “Mary Queen of Scots” actor have made valiant efforts to keep their romance out of the spotlight, which has only intrigued outsiders.
Fans have clung to every lyric, appearance, and photo of the couple in hopes of gaining insight into their relationship. Some of Swift’s tracks, including “Gorgeous” and “Dress,” have sparked speculation about the subject of the songs and led to theories about the relationship.
However, Swift revealed that Alwyn inspired more than just her music in “Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions. “The musician confirmed that he wrote two of her “Folklore” songs under the alias “William Bowery. “He is also credited as a cowriter on three of her “Evermore tracks.”
In May 2017, The Sun reported that Swift and Alwyn had been secretly dating for months.
A source told The Sun that the singer had flown to London via private jets to meet her British beau, and her security had made it a military-like mission to prevent her from being seen.”
The outlet also reported that ” She walked around London with Joe, using disguises like scarves and hats to keep her identity under wraps.”
Swift performed a cover of Earth, Wind & Fire ‘s classic song “September” in April 2018. However, she changed the lyrics from “September 21” to “September 28,” And fans speculated that the new date was the day Alwyn professed his love for Swift.
Swift endorsed a Tumblr post explaining the theory.
Alwyn played the role of Baron Masham in the 2018 period drama ” The Favourite “and Swift called the film” absolutely phenomenal ” the day before its release.
She also supported Alwyn in the run-up to the premiere and accompanied him to the New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center in September 2018.
Swift has drawn lyrical inspiration from her romantic relationships in the past, and her recent work has followed suit. Fans speculated that tracks on albums like” Reputation “and” Lover ” were coded with messages about Alwyn. However, Swift has not confirmed that the songs are about her current partner.
In an interview in December 2018 with The Sunday Times, the actor was asked if it bothered him to be the subject of his girlfriend’s songs.
“No, not at all. No. It’s flattering,” he replied, which was more than he had said about the singer in previous interviews.
Earlier this month, he defended his stance on privacy in an interview with Esquire. Asked if he was aware of the challenges that come with dating the superstar, Alwyn said the following:
“I haven’t sought advice on that. Because I know how I feel about it. I think there’s a very clear line of what someone should share or what they need to share and what they don’t want to share and what they don’t want to share.”
Swift’s 2019 song “Cruel Summer” hinted that the singer had feelings for Alwyn the summer before they started dating while she was still seeing Hiddleston.
“I don’ T wanna keep secrets just to keep you / And I snuck through the garden gate / Every night this summer just to seal my fate,” the lyrics read.
The singer has photocopied pages of her journal entries in deluxe versions of her 2019 album “Lover. “An excerpt emphasized the importance of privacy for her and Alwyn.
From Jan. 3, 2017, Swift wrote, “I’m essentially based in London and hiding to protect us from the evil world that just wants to ruin things.”
She also revealed that they had managed to keep their relationship a secret, continuing, “We were together and no one found out 3 months now. I want it to stay that way because I don’t want anything to change.”
The singer skipped the 2019 Grammys despite receiving a nomination for best pop vocal album for her album “Reputation” to attend a BAFTA after-party with Alwyn. “The Favourite” picked up seven BAFTA wins.
Swift congratulated the film’s cast, which included Olivia Colman and Emma Stone, in an Instagram post, but Alwyn was not pictured.
The pop star’s Netflix documentary “Taylor Swift: Miss Americana” does not focus on their relationship, but Alwyn appears briefly. At one point, she opens up about falling in love with him.
“I also fell in love with someone who had a really wonderfully normal, balanced, grounded life, and we decided together that our relationship should be private,” she says.
The actor can also be seen running backstage to hug Swift after a concert on her legendary stadium tour.
Swift shocked fans with the announcement that she would release her eighth studio album, “Folklore,” on the 24th.
The 16-track album was not only much different from her previous discography, but the lyrics were not all autobiographical.
Instead, Swift said she took people’s perspective ” I’ve never met people I know, or those I wish I hadn’t.”
Despite her precautionary message to fans, They became concerned that tracks like “The 1” and “Exile” hinted at a real breakup with Alwyn. However, the singer reportedly began writing the album in April, weeks before Alwyn posted an Instagram showing them isolating together during the pandemic.
Swift’s love song “Invisible String,” the eleventh track on the album, seems to confirm that she is still in a relationship with Alwyn.
As she has done in previous tracks rumored to be about the British actor, She filled “Invisible String” with golden imagery and even mentioned his teenage appearance working in a yogurt store.
Fans also began to wonder if Alwyn played a bigger role than just serving as romantic inspiration for the surprise album after Swift listed one of her collaborators as William Bowery – a name some people suspected was a pseudonym for Alwyn.
However, Swift has not confirmed whether or not Alwyn helped her write tracks for “Folklore,” and this is just one of many theories about who Bowery might be.
After numerous theories about William Bowery, the mysterious cowriter credited on “Folklore” tracks “Exile” and “Betty,” Swift revealed the moniker was a pseudonym for Alwyn.
“There was a lot of discussion about William Bowery and his identity because it’s not a real person,” she told her collaborators Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff in “Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions.”
“William Bowery is Joe,” she said, continuing, “Joe plays the piano beautifully, and he’s always just playing and inventing things and creating things.”
The musician explained that the British actor wrote the piano part and the first verse of “Exile” himself.
After Swift heard Alwyn sing the fourth track, she knew it should be a duet.
“I was excited and asked if we could keep writing it. It was pretty obvious that it should be a duet because he has such a deep voice and it sounded really good sung down there and in that register,” she said.
Alwyn had also already written the entire chorus of “Betty” when Swift first heard it.
“I just heard Joe sing the entire fully formed chorus of ‘Betty’ from another room. And I was just like, ‘ Hello,'” she recalled.
Since the couple was quarantined together during the pandemic, Swift suggested they write music together. And as they worked on “Betty,” she realized she “thought it sounded really good from a man’s voice, from a male perspective.”
“I’ve written so many songs from the perspective of a woman wanting a man’s apology that we decided to do it from the perspective of a teenager apologizing after losing the love of his life for being stupid,” she explained.
When Swift announced that she would release her second surprise album of 2020, she told fans that many of the same collaborators from “Folklore” helped craft “Evermore” – one of them being Alwyn.
Again using the pseudonym William Bowery, the actor is credited as cowriter on three “Evermore” tracks:” Champagne Problems,” Coney Island “and” Evermore.”
Two of the songs, “Champagne Problems” and “Coney Island,” are about breakups, which led fans to joke about what it was like for the couple to write them.
Swift and Alwyn made a rare public outing together in early January 2021, taking a walk through the North London Public Park with the actor’s mother, Elizabeth Alwyn.
The couple held hands, and all three people wore masks, as seen in a photo published by E! News.
An anonymous source told the outlet that Swift split her time between England and Nashville during the pandemic.
“She’s been back and forth between Nashville and England, spending time with her family and with Joe’s family. They take walks around the neighborhood and go on hikes to get fresh air,” they said, adding that Alwyn often “comes along.”
