Taylor Swift's Full Relationship History To Date
She's the star who built a billion dollar brand on penning lyrics about the universality of heartbreak. If there's one thing more synonymous with Taylor Swift than her current beau Travis Kelce, it's the string of boyfriends who came before him.
As soon as Swift with her head of angelic blonde curls burst onto the scene, so too did a raft of men desperate to date her. And date them she did, before immortalising them and their dalliances in her lyrics (much to some of their dissatisfaction).
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From Harry Styles to Tom Hiddleston and Calvin Harris, this your comprehensive run-down of each and every one of Taylor Swift's (ahem) love stories and the hit songs of hers that they're believed to have inspired.
Travis Kelce, July 2023 - present day
The Swifties were first alerted to NFL player Travis Kelce's interest in their patron saint when he revealed on a July 2023 episode of his podcast, New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce, that he had tried to slip the singer his phone number on a friendship bracelet at one of her Eras tour concerts. Fast forward just a matter of weeks and Swift was then spotted supporting his team, the Kansas City Chiefs, alongside his mum.
Fans of the pair got the clarification they so desired in December 2023, when Time magazine named Swift as its person of the year. In the accompanying interview, she confirmed how she'd first connected with Kelce.
'This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,' she told Time. 'We started hanging out right after that. So we actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for, because we got to get to know each other. By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple. I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard launch a first date.'
Joe Alwyn, May 2017 to April 2023
Swift's 'London Boy' was, of course, none other than actor Joe Alwyn, who she is believed to have been in a relationship with for more than six years.
The Conversations with Friends actor is said to have inspired a string of Swift's albums, including Evermore, Folklore and Reputation, before the couple split for good in April 2023. Sources told Entertainment Tonight at the time that the 'relationship had just run its course.'
'They've had rough patches before and always worked things out, so friends thought they would take some time apart but eventually come back together,' the source said, noting that 'ultimately' the pair 'weren't the right fit for one another.'
In a June 2024 magazine interview with The Sunday Times' Style magazine, Alwyn spoke about their 'hard' split for the first time. 'As everyone knows, we together—both of us, mutually—decided to keep the more private details of our relationship private. It was never something to commodify, and I see no reason to change that now. And, look, this is also a little over a year ago now, and I feel fortunate to be in a really great place in my life, professionally and personally.'
Matty Healy, May to June 2023
Following her split from long-term love Alwyn, Swift started spending time with The 1975's Matty Healy, with the pair being photographed out on a number of dinner dates in New York City. Matty was also photographed dancing alongside certified Swift squad member, Gigi Hadid, in the crowd at several of the Eras tour concerts.
According to an Entertainment Tonight source at the time, 'Taylor and Matty like each other... Taylor has a crush on Matty and they are having a good time hanging out.'
'Matty also thinks Taylor is awesome and incredibly talented,' they added, before revealing that the pair initially connected thanks to a mutual friend, musician, Jack Antonoff.
But sadly, just a matter of weeks later, on June 4 2023, Entertainment Tonight broke the news that the pair had gone their separate ways. 'Taylor and Matty broke up. They are both extremely busy and realised they're not really compatible with each other. Taylor's friends want what's best for her and aren't shocked that their relationship fizzled out since she recently got out of a long-term relationship.'
Tom Hiddleston, May to September 2016
After being snapped indulging in some rather serious PDA, it seemed that Swift was making it clear that actor Tom Hiddleston was hers and hers alone. Things only seemed to get more serious from there, with Hiddleston famously pictured wearing an 'I HEART TS' vest during a July 4 beach day in Rhode Island with a long list of famous friends.
Sadly, just a matter of months later the pair went their separate ways, although Swift reportedly penned Reputation's 'Getaway Car' about Hiddleston helping her to escape her relationship with Calvin Harris. 'The ties were black / the lies were white / I wanted to leave him, I needed a reason,' she sings in the song, with fans surmising that the black tie reference nods to the night Swift and Hiddleston reportedly first met at the Met Gala in 2016.
Calvin Harris, February 2015 to May 2016
One eagle-eyed fan manage to capture the exact moment during the Billboard Music Awards in 2015 that Ellie Goulding introduced Swift to Calvin Harris, meaning that we know that they first met then, and became a couple shortly after.
Despite a string of adorable Instagram pictures of the pair relaxing at Swift's Rhode Island home, they are said to have split in May 2016, with Harris even playing Swift at her own game and referencing her in some cryptic song lyrics of his own.
Harry Styles, November 2012 to January 2013
It's the drama-filled few months that put Swift's love life uncomfortably firmly in the public eye. Swift was first pictured with then-member of One Direction, Harry Styles, in Central Park, followed by a New Year's kiss in Times Square. The pair later split after a few months, with the songs 'Out of the Woods' and 'Style' thought to be rather obviously about Styles.
Jake Gyllenhaal, October 2010 to January 2011
Swift's album Red is thought to have been inspired by her months-long fling with Jake Gyllenhaal, which made headlines owing to the fact that the actor was 29 when Swift was just 20. In fact, it's that very age gap that is believed to have inspired the single 'All Too Well' and its accompanying video All Too Well: The Short.
John Mayer, December 2009 to February 2010
Anybody who's ever listened to Swift's single 'Dear John' will know about her dalliance with John Mayer. Among the lyrics that nod to their brief liaison are, 'Dear John, I see it all now I was wrong. Don’t you think 19 is too young to be played by your dark, twisted games?' and what ensued suggested that Mayer did not take well to being the subject of one of Swift's songs.
'I never got an email. I never got a phone call. I was really caught off guard, and it really humiliated me at a time when I’d already been dressed down,' he promptly told Rolling Stone. He also criticised her songwriting, adding, 'I will say as a songwriter that I think it’s kind of cheap songwriting.'
Taylor Lautner, 2009
Swift went on to date actor Taylor Lautner after meeting him on the set of Valentine's Day in 2009. They're thought to have broken up in December 2009, with Swift's 2010 single 'Back to December' rumoured to be about the actor. When he was asked about the song six years later in 2016, Lautner simply said, 'That’s what she does,' according to TIME, although the pair proved in 2023 that it's all water under the bridge after the actor attended and spoke on stage during one of Swift's Eras tour concerts.
Joe Jonas, July to October 2008
Swift's first high-profile relationship was with none other than Joe Jonas who, after dating the singer for four months, dumped her over the phone.
Confirming how Jonas ended their relationship, she told Ellen Degeneres in November 2008: 'When I find that person who is right for me, he’ll be wonderful, and when I look at that person, I’m not even gonna be able to remember the boy who broke up with me over the phone in 25 seconds when I was 18.'
Swifties believe that 'Forever and Always' is about Jonas. Perhaps it was worth the horrible dumping in order to get such a classic pop song.
Plus, if revenge really is a dish best served cold then it was a move straight out of Swift's high-road rulebook when she made headlines around the world in 2023 for offering Jonas' soon-to-be ex-wife Sophie Turner a place to stay in New York City and taking her out for Cosmopolitans to cheer her up. Nothing quite like girl power.
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