Since releasing her debut album in 2006, Taylor Swift has changed a lot. Where she was once super open about her friendships, relationships, and emotions on social media and in interviews, in more recent years, she's become much more private (likely thanks to the intense media speculation about her romantic life). She's been dating British actor Joe Alwyn for the past few years, but they're rarely spotted together in public. And when it comes to what we actually know about their relationship, the couple hasn't shared much.
Instead, fans tend to rely on Taylor's music to figure out what's going on in her personal life and how she feels about Joe, and her new album, Midnights, might be able to give us a bit more insight. Taylor hasn't tried to hide the fact that she doesn't like the rumors that constantly circulate about her relationship, but it really does seem like she and Joe are still going strong — and it's likely that will show in the lyrics of her new songs.
Here's everything you need to know about Taylor and Joe's long-running relationship as fans enter the Midnights era — from their first meeting to where they are today.
May 2016: The First Meeting
The couple has never actually confirmed that this is where they met for the first time, but fans believe Taylor slyly revealed that they met at the 2016 Met Gala, where they were both guests. In Taylor's song "Dress," the lyrics "flashback when you met me/your buzzcut and my hair bleached" describe exactly what they both looked like during that time.
This is widely believed to be when the ball got rolling on their relationship — despite the fact that, that same night, Taylor was making headlines for her dance with Tom Hiddleston.
May 2017: The Earliest Reports of Their Relationship
It would be a full year from their (supposed) first meeting before the earliest online reports of their relationship began to surface. Taylor was laying low to avoid the press at this point, in part thanks to the drama between her, Kim Kardashian, and Kanye West, and little did fans know that the beginning of a beautiful relationship was happening behind the scenes.
Describing Joe as Taylor's "secret Brit actor boyfriend," The Sun was the first to report that they'd been together for months.
"She's been walking around with Joe in London using disguises, like scarves and hats, to keep her identity under wraps," a source told the outlet at the time. "Nobody has a clue they've been walking past a music superstar — not even her new neighbors."
June 2017: First Paparazzi Sighting
A month after the earliest reports of Taylor and Joe's relationship made headlines, the couple was photographed together for the first time. Paparazzi with the Daily Mail caught them sitting on the balcony of her Nashville apartment.
November 2017: First Musical References to Joe
Taylor and Joe continued to keep their relationship low-key, but as soon as her Reputation album was released in the fall of 2017, it became obvious that he'd inspired many of her new songs, giving fans a peek into their lives for the first time.
Taylor has never been in the habit of confirming fan theories when they involve her relationships, but songs such as Call It What You Want and New Year's Day seemed to give off the impression that she was in it for the long haul with Joe.
May 2018: The Famous Cactus Photo
In May 2018, just one day apart, Taylor and Joe posted photos on Instagram in the exact same location, showing that they were together (you can see Joe's here). It seems small, but since this was the closest fans would really get to Joe and Taylor making their relationship Instagram official, it was a pretty big deal.
August 2019: More Songs About Joe
With the release of Taylor's album, Lover, in 2019 came more details about her relationship via her lyrics — and more confirmation that this couple was just as strong as ever. With songs like "London Boy" so obviously pointing directly to Joe, it was impossible to deny that the singer was in love.
Speaking to the Press
While doing press for Lover that same month, Taylor told The Guardian that she had no plans to talk about Joe or their relationship in interviews.
"I've learned that if I do, people think it's up for discussion, and our relationship isn't up for discussion," she said. "If you and I were having a glass of wine right now, we'd be talking about it — but it's just that it goes out into the world. That's where the boundary is, and that's where my life has become manageable. I really want to keep it feeling manageable."
December 2019: Joe Opens Up
Right around the time that reports surfaced that Taylor was spending a lot of time in London with Joe, it was his turn to speak out. In an interview with The Times, he shared how he really felt about being the subject of so many of his girlfriend's songs.
"It's flattering," he said at the time, later adding that, when it comes to rumors about them, he doesn't "pay attention to what I don't want to pay attention to."
January 2020: First Public Appearance
Joe and Taylor kicked off 2020 by making their first public appearance as a couple at the Golden Globes. Though they didn't pose on the red carpet together, they were photographed sitting side by side at their table inside the event, and cameras managed to capture a few cute moments between them.
January 2020: A Peek Into Their Personal Lives
When Taylor's Netflix documentary, Miss Americana, was released later that month, fans were treated to a small bit of footage of Taylor and Joe as a couple. Over clips of them hugging backstage after one of her performances and driving together in the car, Taylor says, "I also was falling in love with someone who had a really wonderfully normal, balanced, grounded life. And we decided together that we wanted our relationship to be private."
November 2020: Introducing William Bowery
Months after the 2020 release of Taylor's surprise album, Folklore, she confirmed that the rumors about one of her co-writers on her songs were true. Fans had long guessed that the mysterious William Bowery, who is credited on tracks including "Betty" and "Exile," is actually Joe, and in her Disney+ special, Folklore: Long Pond Studio Sessions, Taylor admitted that William was him.
Ultimately, this would lead to Joe winning his first Grammy award, and he'd continue to collaborate with Taylor in the future.
March 2021: A Major Shout-Out
When Taylor accepted her Grammy award for album of the year in March 2021, she gave Joe a rare shout-out by name.
"I want to thank Joe, who is the first person I play every single song that I write, and I had the best time writing songs with you in quarantine," she said in her speech.
April 2022: Engagement Rumors
After rampant rumors that Taylor and Joe had gotten secretly engaged, he decided to touch on the topic in an interview with WSJ Magazine without actually confirming or denying anything.
"If I had a pound for every time I think I've been told I've been engaged, then I'd have a lot of pound coins," he said in the April 2022 story. "I mean, the truth is, if the answer was yes, I wouldn't say, and if the answer was no, I wouldn't say."
April 2022: Joe Talks About Writing With Taylor
That same month, while talking to The Guardian, the real William Bowery shared details about what it was like to write songs with Taylor.
"It came about from messing around on a piano, and singing badly, then being overheard, and being like, 'Let's see what happens if we get to the end of it together,'" he said, adding that winning a Grammy had been a "ridiculous bonus."
October 2022: Spotted in New York
Days before her new album Midnights dropped, Joe and Taylor were spotted walking in New York City — a rare public sighting for the couple. While promoting the album, Taylor did speak about their relationship, noting that her song "Lavender Haze" would be about dating Joe.
"We've had to dodge weird rumors, tabloid stuff, and we just ignore it," she said in a video she shared on Instagram. "This song is sort of about the act of ignoring that stuff to protect the real stuff."
