Joe Alwyn Opens Up About Taylor Swift Breakup: ‘A Hard Thing to Navigate’

Joe Alwyn opened up about the end of his relationship with Taylor Swift in a recent interview with the Sunday Times Style Magazine.

In April 2023, Alwyn and Swift’s breakup was reported, and by September, Swift was in a highly public relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

Swift’s newest album “The Tortured Poets Department” was seemingly named after a WhatsApp group called The Tortured Man Club, which Alwyn shared with actors Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott. When asked if he had listen to the album, Alwyn avoided the question.

“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,” Alwyn said. “That is a hard thing to navigate. 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.”

Alwyn continued: “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 explained that he and Swift mutually decided to keep the details of their six-year relationship private, and that’s something he sees no reason to change after the release of her album. Though songs like “So Long, London” and “loml” are rumored to be about him, he declined to talk more about the breakup or his current dating life: “I’m sure you can appreciate, given the level of noise and scrutiny about my past relationship, why I wouldn’t want to just open the door to things like that right now.”

Alwyn also talked about working with Yorgos Lanthimos on “Kinds of Kindness,” in which Alwyn plays a single father trying to get his wife (Emma Stone) back from a cult. The film marks Alwyn’s second project with Lanthimos, the first being 2018’s “The Favourite.” Along with Alwyn, “Kinds of Kindness” stars Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Jesse Plemons and Hunter Schafer, among others.

“Even though Yorgos really goes into dark corners in his work, he keeps a light atmosphere on set. It’s the second time I’ve worked with him and with Emily,” he said, calling Stone by her birth name. “I love them both and I love working with them, so it felt comfortable.”