Taylor Swift is doing what Taylor Swift does best: releasing cryptic new music which has sent her fans into a meltdown.
Over the weekend, Swift dropped The Tortured Poets Department which turned out to be a surprise double album. That's a whole lot of songs about her breakup with her boyfriend of six years, Joe Alwyn.
Only... that's not what this album is predominantly about.
Based on the clues left in the lyrics, Swift seems to be singing about a different British celeb: The 1975 frontman, Matty Healy.
For many of us, Healy was a mere blip on the radar. A stumble on the path from Alwyn to her current boyfriend, NFL player Travis Kelce. After all, from what we saw, Swift and Healy only reportedly dated for a month in early 2023.
The reaction online was immediately one of confusion over how this 'one-month situationship' had hit the singer harder than the demise of her six-year relationship with Alwyn.
But for Swift and the people who have been paying attention, Healy wasn't a brief rebound fling that came out of nowhere. Their romance may have begun a decade ago, when they first met in November 2014.
Healy confirmed he met Taylor backstage at his Los Angeles show and they exchanged numbers. After this meeting, Taylor apparently favourited a shirtless photo of the singer.
Healy was quizzed about the meeting on Australian radio program Shazam Top 20 and offered an enthusiastic response when asked if they were the next big celebrity couple. "I mean, bloody hell, what am I going to do, go out with Taylor Swift?" Healy replied.
"She’s a sensation. I wouldn’t say no."
From here, their relationship began, and neither were shy about their affections for each other.
Later in November, Swift was photographed wearing a 1975 tank top in Los Angeles. In December, she attended a 1975 concert in New York City which led to Us Weekly reporting that Swift and Healy began secretly dating after the British rocker had pursued her over text.
By January 2015, Healy denied the dating rumours but did share sentiments he was crushing on the singer. "We met each other. We exchanged numbers in the same way a lot of people in this kind of world do. And we spoke occasionally, and then she's the biggest pop star in the world," he told Shazam Top 20.
"There’s no, like, relationship or anything happening... As much as it'd be amazing for me if it did, unfortunately it didn't."
But in February 2015, Swift and Healy was spotted partying together at the Brit Awards after-party.
Just as things seemed to be heating up between Swift and Healy, then came a bump in the road and that bump was called Calvin Harris.
The 'Blank Space' singer started dating the Scottish DJ, before enjoying a fling with Tom Hiddleston.
But as Taylor was dating other men, Healy continued to make several comments about Taylor in interviews — which we all know is the celebs' version of posting an Instagram Story to get an ex's attention.
After making a controversial comment in an interview with Q magazine about the Swift dating rumours "emasculating," him, Healy shared a statement where he addressed what happened with the singer.
"I didn't even date Taylor," he said. "Since she came to my show in December of 2014, I would say that 90 percent of journalists that have interviewed me have asked about either her as a person or what our ‘interaction’ was like. I have said on countless occasions that I found her to be one of the most gracious, hard working, creatively gifted, and beautiful women that I have had the pleasure to meet. I personally have a lot of respect and admiration for her. Why would I not?"
In 2019, Healy shared his hopes to work with Swift in the future in a chat on Neil Griffiths’ podcast The Green Room."I would never slag Taylor off, I think Taylor's amazing," he said. "Taylor, if you ever want someone to help you set up the mics for your acoustic record, just so you know, I'm there."
Healy and Swift ended up collaborating, but at the time Taylor was already in a relationship with Alwyn. In November 2022, Healy confirmed his band had worked on her album Midnights.
"We actually worked a bit on that but then the version of it never came out," he said during an interview with KROQ's Klein/Ally Show for Audacy's DTS Sound Space. He added there was no hard feeling over Swift's choice not to use their work, clarifying "It was for reasons that are not to be criticised. She's amazing."
Then in January 2023, Swift made a surprise appearance at The 1975's London show. But it wasn't a regular cameo, this is where the singer decided to premiere her song 'Anti-Hero' for the first time.
At this stage, Swift was still dating Alwyn which she may have alluded to in her new song 'Guilty As Sin?' where sang about repressing feelings for someone while dating another man.
"I keep these longings locked in lowercase inside a vault," she sang. "There's no such thing as bad thoughts, only your actions talk. These fatal fantasies... We've already done it in my head."
On April 8, Swift and Alwyn confirmed they had broken up. Curiously, this is the date of Healy's birthday.
Two days later, Healy deactivated his controversial Instagram account and when asked by a fan for the reason, he said on stage that "The era of me being a fucking asshole is going to come to an end."
In May, Healy and Swift made their debut as a couple after they were photographed together and attended each other's shows. Their romance was solidified when Healy caught a 17-hour flight to attend Swift's first Nashville Eras and Taylor could be seen mouthing the words "This one is about you. You know who you are. I love you."
Two days earlier, Healy was seen mouthing the same words.
@1776z♬ original sound - angel 🗿
Taylor moving on quickly from Joe to Matty could have been referenced in 'Fresh Out The Slammer' which compares the end of a relationship to the conclusion of a prison sentence.
"Now pretty baby, I'm running back home to you. Fresh out the slammer, I know who my first call will be to," she sings, perhaps referring to contacting Healy after breaking up with Alwyn.
Taylor and Matty's relationship was not a popular pairing for most of the '22' singer's fandom who frequently called attention to The 1975 singer's history of making problematic comments.
In 'But Daddy, I Love Him', Taylor complains about the public's negative reaction to a relationship. "I know he's crazy, but he's the one I want," she sang. "God save the most judgmental creeps, who say they want what's best for me."
After a whirlwind romance, Swift and Healy were over by June. TMZ reported at the time that a friend "close to the situation," said they broke up but did not specify who ended the relationship.
Swift might have shed light on the split in 'The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived' where she sings about being 'ghosted' by an ex.
"Was any of it true? You gazing at me starry-eyed in your Jehovah's Witness suit. Who the f**k was that guy?" she sang. "I don't even want you back, I just want to know, if rusting my sparkling summer was the goal?"
This brings us back to today. If the lyrics to several songs in The Tortured Poets Department are about Healy, this means Swift was potentially ghosted by a guy she had been crushing on for no less than a decade — she got her heart broken by a man she potentially considered the one who got away.
While it might seem like Taylor Swift and Matty Healy were an inconsequential fling, there's a lot more history there than meets the eye.
And a lot more songs dedicated to this ex than anyone expected.
Feature image: Getty.