A Complete Timeline of Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn's Relationship

Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn's romance is one that remains shrouded in mystery. From fan conspiracy theories to engagement rumors, there's so much that the public doesn't know about their relationship. It's a big change from Swift's previously public relationships with Harry Styles, Calvin Harris, and Tom Hiddleston, which were filled with paparazzi photo ops, tabloid stories, Instagram posts, and more. 

That isn't the case for Swift and Alwyn, who have chosen to keep their relationship out of the limelight and just for them. Though the most recent information about the couple points to the end of their relationship, the couple was for more than half a decade after first being linked in 2016, making it Swift's longest relationship yet. After a few years of dating, the pair started to become a bit more open about their love, making occasional public appearances together and sharing tidbits of their life at home. From secret dates to songwriting collaborations, Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn were one of our favorite couples of the 2010s. However, with information regarding their recent breakup, L'OFFICIEL breaks down the timeline for this mysterious love story.

While it's unclear when Swift and Alwyn initially crossed paths, fans speculate that they were introduced to one another at the 2016 Met Gala due to the lyrics on her song "Dress" where she sings: “Flashback when you met me / Your buzz cut and my hair bleached.” 

Swift was dating Calvin Harris at the time, with whom she broke up shortly after the gala. She then entered a semi-public relationship with Tom Hiddleston until September 2016. 

A month after her breakup with Hiddleston was announced, Swift attended a private Kings of Leon show with her friends in New York City. Fans later pointed out that Alwyn was also at the show, as he was spotted on camera walking into the Bowery Hotel's after-party on the same night. 

Swift was spotted leaving the ArcLight theater in Los Angeles alongside her mom, Este and Alana Haim, and a couple of her other friends after a limited release screening of Alwyn's movie Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. 

In promotion for her Lover album in 2019, Swift released four exclusive booklets that contained special journal entries. Included in the fourth version of the Lover journals included an excerpt from January 3, 2017, where she reveals that she and Alwyn have been dating secretly for three months. 

"I get all scared about the future because so much has changed in the last year of my life," Swift writes. "I mean this time last year I was living in LA, getting ready for Grammys and now, I’m essentially based in London, hiding out trying to protect us from the nasty world that just wants to ruin things. We have been together and no one has found out for 3 months now. I want it to stay that way because I don’t want anything about this to change or become too complicated or intruded upon. But it’s senseless to worry about someday not being happy when I am happy now. Ok. Breathe."

Alwyn posted a polaroid on Instagram that matched polaroids of Swift. It was later revealed that they are staying at Stella McCartney's farm in the UK. 

After months of hiding from the media, a source close to the couple revealed to The Sun that Swift and Alwyn have been dating for a while and that their friends and family were aware of it. 

A source told the publication, "Taylor and Joe are the real deal, this is a very serious relationship."

Swift had allegedly been renting a house in North London while she was seeing Alwyn and went on "great lengths to ensure her visits have remained unnoticed," according to The Sun. The source added: “Taylor has flown in via private jets and her security has made it a military-like mission to prevent her from being seen.”

Following the media frenzy over Swift and Hiddleston, the singer made a determined effort to keep her relationship quiet. The Sun reported, “After her 1989 tour and all the attention Taylor received, she learned she had to be more protective of her personal life and she and Joe decided early on to keep their private life private.”

The couple was finally shot by paparazzi for the first time having coffee together on a balcony in Nashville. This trip was allegedly Alwyn's first time meeting Swift's parents. 

Swift brings Alwyn's little brother Patrick along to a fan's house where they did an Instagram live stream, listened to the unreleased "King Of My Heart" track, and received some unreleased Reputation merch. 

Swift liked a Tumblr post about how every love song on Reputation is about Alwyn, and every love song she writes from now on will be about him. Additionally, the singer hosted a "secret" listening party for the album where she confirmed to fans that "Gorgeous" is about her beau. 

“Basically Taylor made us all promise that if anyone made any accusations of who this song is about, we tell them it is 100 percent about her angel boyfriend of one year,” a fan said on Tumblr. “This isn’t a secret. She wanted us to tell people."

Some of the lyrics in the song include: “You should take it as a compliment / That I got drunk and made fun of the way you talk,” about Alwyn's British accent. Swift also sings, “And I got a boyfriend, he’s older than us / He’s in the club doing I don’t know what," about Hiddleston, who is nine years older than Swift. 

After her performance at Jingle Ball, Swift and Alwyn were spotted holding hands while arriving at her Tribeca apartment in New York City. 

Fans tweeted their reactions to seeing Swift and Alwyn engaging in PDA among the crowd at Jingle Ball London during Ed Sheeran's set.

One fan, in particular, tweeted, “THEY LITERALLY SLOW DANCED TO ALL EDS SONGS WITH THEIR ARMS AROUND ONE ANOTHER AND JUST KEPT LOOKING AT EACH OTHER AND KISSING.”

Swift's song "New Year's Day" is also inspired by Alwyn. At the iHeartRadio album release party earlier in the year, she revealed, "We threw a big New Year’s Eve party in London this year, and I was thinking about how everybody talks and thinks about who you kiss at midnight (...) And I think that is very romantic. But I think there’s something even more romantic about who’s gonna deal with you on New Year’s Day. Who’s willing to give you Advil and clean up the house? I think that states more of a permanence. So I was thinking about that, and I wrote this song called 'New Year’s Day.'”

Swift and Alwyn were spotted together for the first time in three months holding hands during a Malibu hike.  

Both Swift and Alwyn posted coordinating pictures of themselves standing next to the same cactus. Alwyn later told ET Online that it was not intentional. 

"I didn't even think of that until I was in New York and someone else mentioned it," he said. "It wasn't purposeful at all!"

The two lovebirds were spotted enjoying drinks on the beach on a romantic getaway to Turks and Caicos. 

Alwyn spoke out about Swift publicly for the first time, but only to bring up how he would prefer his relationship to be private. 

“I’m aware people want to know about that side of things,” the actor said to British Vogue. “I think we have been successfully very private and that has now sunk in for people…but I really prefer to talk about work.”

Swift joined Alwyn at the NYFF premiere of his film The Favourite and accompanies him to the after-party. September 28 is also allegedly the couple's anniversary. 

Swift posted clips of Alwyn's film The Favourite in promotion, calling the movie "phenomenal" and tagging both Alwyn and Nicholas Hoult in the caption. 

In an interview with Esquire, Alwyn opened up a bit after being asked if he sought out any guidance for his relationship, to which he responded that he didn't. 

“I didn’t seek out advice on that. Because I know what I feel about it," he said. "I think there’s a very clear line as to what somebody should share, or feel like they have to share, and what they don’t want to, and shouldn’t have to.”

The pair were also spotted earlier in the night after Swift snuck into a BAFTA dinner. According to the Daily Star Online, the singer was "determined to keep a low profile" as she skipped the main event and headed to an exclusive dinner at the Grosvenor Hotel. 

“Taylor and Joe were spent most of the evening in the middle of the room near the head table and based on table 68," an onlooker said to the Daily Star Online. "They were chatting to colleagues but Taylor didn’t hide her affection towards Joe. She was seen caressing his back as they chatted away to a pal. It was clear they were an item but Taylor appeared conscious not to make a big deal about her appearance - she was just there for a good time rather than working like she would have to at the Grammys. Taylor didn’t leave Joe’s side all evening.”

The article also reported that Swift took home two pottery rabbit table decorations to keep as mementos of the night. 

Rumors of Alwyn planning a proposal started to swirl as Us Weekly reported that Swift's closest friends are placing bets on when the couple will get engaged. 

“Taylor’s friends are all talking about a proposal and how she really wants to marry Joe,” said one of their sources. “He’s her dream guy.” Another source echoed, “Taylor really believes Joe is the one for her. She wants to get engaged to him. She just doesn’t feel as though she has to impress anyone at this point.” 

The couple was spotted on an outing together in the City of Love itself, Paris. Photographs emerged of Swift and Alwyn holding hands as they took a stroll through the city after having breakfast at Café de Flore. Alwyn also posted a collection of photos that Swift took of him from the same trip. 

As Swift released her seventh studio album Lover, fans went deep into dissecting and theorizing the meanings behind many of her lyrics, even going as far as referencing the wedding imagery in the songs "Lover," "Paper Rings," and "It's Nice To Have A Friend" as Swift's way of hinting at a possible engagement (or even marriage).

In a Youtube Live prior to the album release, Swift confirmed that the album referenced her current relationship. "It’s a really romantic album, but it really celebrates love in all its complexity," she said. "Not just flowers and sunshine but the patchwork emotions that go into any love you feel.”

Despite the outpouring of love and romance the album itself displayed, Swift continued to remain tight-lipped about her relationship. In an interview with The Guardian, the singer explained her reasoning behind why she chooses to keep it private. “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," she said. "That’s where the boundary is, and that’s where my life has become manageable. I really want to keep it feeling manageable.”

While the couple didn't walk the red carpet together, Swift and Alwyn both attended the 2020 Golden Globes and sat at the same table. Swift was a nominee and presenter for Best Original Song.

After the ceremony, the pair were spotted making appearances at multiple after-parties, including ones hosted by Amazon Studios and CAA. According to E!, the couple was unafraid of engaging in a little PDA. "They looked inseparable and really in love," a source said. "Taylor had her arm on Joe, and she leaned in to kiss him several times."

For the most part, Swift and Alwyn appeared to have a relatively quiet quarantine, only coming on social media to post occasional pictures of their life indoors which consisted of a lot of wine, cooking, and cats.

Swift confirmed that Alwyn helped to inspire lyrics in "Peace" during a conversation with Paul McCartney for Rolling Stone, where she explained that the song is rooted in her personal life. 

"I know you have done a really excellent job of this in your personal life: carving out a human life within a public life, and how scary that can be when you do fall in love and you meet someone, especially if you’ve met someone who has a very grounded, normal way of living," she explained to McCartney. "I, oftentimes, in my anxieties, can control how I am as a person and how normal I act and rationalize things, but I cannot control if there are twenty photographers outside in the bushes and what they do and if they follow our car and if they interrupt our lives. I can’t control if there’s going to be a fake weird headline about us in the news tomorrow."

Swift also confirmed that Alwyn sympathizes with her experience and that her relationship as a whole has made her more cautious about what she shares with the public.

"I think that in knowing him and being in the relationship I am in now, I have definitely made decisions that have made my life feel more like a real life and less like just a storyline to be commented on in tabloids," she continued. "Whether that’s deciding where to live, who to hang out with, when to not take a picture — the idea of privacy feels so strange to try to explain, but it’s really just trying to find bits of normalcy. That’s what that song 'peace' is talking about. Like, would it be enough if I could never fully achieve the normalcy that we both crave?"

After months of speculation, Swift finally confirms Bowery's identity in a Disney+ exclusive film, Folklore: the Long Pond Studio Sessions, teasingly stating that "William Bowery is Joe, as we know."

Alwyn was credited as a co-writer for two songs on the album. For "Exile," Swift explained that the actor was always creating things on the piano. "Joe had written that entire piano part, and he was singing the Bon Iver part," she said to Antonoff and Aaron Dessner. "He was just singing it the way that the whole first verse is. And I was entranced and asked if we could keep writing that one. It was pretty obvious that it should be a duet because he’s got such a low voice and it sounded really good sung down there in that register. And then, we’re really, really, really big Bon Iver fans and we know that Aaron knows him." 

On the song "Betty," Swift overheard Alwyn singing "the entire fully formed chorus from another room," and that served as a catalyst for them deciding to write and create music together. “So this was the first time we had a conversation where I came in and I was like, ‘Hey, this could be really weird, and we could hate this, so because we’re in quarantine and there’s nothing else going on, could we just try to see what it’s like if we write this song together?’” she recounted. 

Five months after the release of Folklore, Swift announces another surprise reveal of her ninth studio album Evermore. Alwyn is credited on three tracks ("Champagne Problems," "Coney Island," and "Evermore") under his pseudonym.

Swift talked to Zane Lowe about her albums folklore and evermore, also mentioning how she got to write and collaborate with Alwyn on a variety of devastating songs. “Joe and I really love sad songs. We’ve always bonded over music. We write the saddest songs, we just love sad songs, what I can I say?" Swift said about the heartbreaking lyrics. "He started ['champagne problems'], and came up with the melodic structure of it. I say it was a surprise that we started writing together, but in a way it wasn’t, because we’ve always bonded over music and our musical tastes and he’s always showing me songs by artists that then become my favorite songs or whatever.” 

About the song "exile," Swift said, "It is so sad. We're so proud of that one. And I do remember the moment he walked in and he was playing that exact piano part and all I had to do was follow the piano melody with the verse melody because the vocal melody is exactly the same. It’s mirrored with the piano part he wrote and we did the same thing with evermore. I’ll just hear what he’s doing, its all there, I just have to dream up some lyrics and come up with some gut wrenching heart shattering story to write with him.”

Swift shouts out Alwyn in her acceptance speech after winning Album of the Year at the 2021 Grammy's. "Joe is the first person that I play every single song that I write," she said in her speech. "And I had the best time writing songs with you in quarantine."

Alwyn was also honored for his contributions to folklore as his name was credited and added to the Grammy's website. 

Multiple Irish publications discussed rumors of the couple being spotted in Cavan, Ireland. The Anglo-Celt reported speculation about Swift and Alwyn staying at the Farnham Estate. iRadio and The Rewind also reported on the rumors. Fans also tweeted their own sightings of the couple having dinner together in the county. 

After multiple sightings throughout Ireland, Swift is spotted at the Conversations With Friends Belfast wrap party as Alwyn's date. The cast and crew pack up the set and move to Croatia for the next round of filming. 

Having played a character in Conversations with Friends, the upcoming series based on the Sally Rooney novel, who is in an open relationship, Alwyn shared, "I'm obviously happy in a monogamous relationship." Although Swift and Alwyn have been together since 2016, discussions of their private life are rare. 

On February 17, a source told Life & Style that the couple had recently gotten engaged. Rumors began circulating after the pair took a romantic vacation to Cornwall, England earlier in the year. 

in April though, Alwyn addressed engagement rumors. Speaking with the Wall Street Journal Magazine, he said, “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 continued, “I mean, the truth is, if the answer was yes, I wouldn’t say, and if the answer was no, I wouldn’t say." 

But according to a Page Six report on June 30, the two have been engaged for months, and they are keeping the matter very private. A source said that Swift only wears her engagement ring at home, and even members of her own team are unaware of the engagement.