Joseph Matthew Alwyn (born February 21, 1991), alternatively known as William Bowery, is a British actor and songwriter. He dated Taylor Swift from September 2016 to March 2023.
Career []
Born in North London, Alywn secretly wanted to be an actor despite his introverted personality. He joined the National Youth Theatre in his late teens and studied English literature and drama at the University of Bristol, from which he graduated in 2012. He earned a BA in acting from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama shortly after he had graduated from college.
He got his first role in the 2016 film Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. He has also appeared in films such as Mary, Queen of Scots and The Favourite, both released in 2018. He appeared next in the 2019 film Harriet.
Relationship with Swift[]
It’s theorized that the pair met when they both attended the Met Gala on May 2, 2016, due to the following lyric in “Dress”: "Flashback when you met me / Your buzzcut and my hair bleached". Swift wore bleached hair and Alwyn wore a buzzcut.
In "Gorgeous", Swift sings "I've got a boyfriend, he's older than us / He's in the club doing, I don't know what". This likely refers to Calvin Harris, who she was dating at the time.
They both started dating on September 28, 2016. In 2018, Swift covered the song "September" by Earth, Wind & Fire; she changed the lyrics "September 21" to "September 28". It was later revealed that Swift's friend, actress Emma Stone, had played matchmaker for the two.
On October 12, 2016, They both attended a private Kings of Leon concert and went to the after party at the Bowery Hotel in New York afterwards.
On November 12, 2016, Swift attended the premiere of Alwyn's movie Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk with her mother and friends.
In early 2017, Swift wrote about their relationship in a journal: "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." The journal was released in 2019.
She also divulged that they had been successful in keeping their relationship a secret and continued, "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."
They both attempted to hide their relationship from the media as Swift wanted to be more protective of her personal life. She'd wear disguises when visiting Alwyn in London. Reports of Alwyn's relationship with Swift first surfaced in on May 16, 2017, almost eight months after they started dating.
On June 5, 2017, they were captured by the paparazzi on a balcony in Nashville for the first time together. On July 26th, they were photographed again when leaving Swift's New York apartment.
In September 2017, Swift released the song "...Ready For It?", which is presumably about him. In the song, she sings “Some boys are tryin’ too hard, he don’t try at all though / Younger than my exes, but he act like such a man, so”. He is younger than her previous two boyfriends, Calvin and Tom (at the time 33 and 36, respectively). The lyrics "No one has to know" could refer to them keeping their relationship private. On Tumblr, Swift liked a post of a fan explaining how the lyrics refers to him. The music video also has references to him: The number 91 appeared, which could refer to his birth year, 1991. Swift also typed the number 21 on a keypad, which could refer to his birthday, February 21.
On October 20, 2017, Swift dropped her single "Gorgeous". A fan who attended one of the Reputation secret sessions said the following about the song: "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. This isn’t a secret. She wanted us to tell people." In the song, Swift sings "You should take it as a compliment / That I got drunk and made fun of the way you talk". Alwyn is British and has a British accent, which is likely what Swift was making fun of. She also sings "Ocean-blue eyes lookin' in mine": He has blue eyes.
On November 10, 2017, Swift released her album Reputation, which included a lot of references to him. Other than the ones already mentioned, these lyrics from the album seem to refer him:
From "End Game":
- "And you heard about me, ooh / I got some big enemies": Around the time they both started dating, She was in a feud with celebrities like Kanye West, the Kardashians and Katy Perry.
From "Delicate":
- "My reputation's never been worse, so you must like me for me.": In 2016, when they both started dating, she received a lot of hate from the internet and media following a feud with Kanye West. However, he was still interested in her besides being hated by a great amount of people.
- "Oh damn, never seen that color blue": Just like in Gorgeous, she refers to his blue eyes.
From "Dancing With Our Hands Tied":
- "I, I loved you in secret": They kept their relationship a secret when they first started dating.
- "Oh, twenty-five years old / Oh, how were you to know?": He was 25 years old when he and Swift started dating.
- "Dancing with our hands tied, hands tied / Yeah, we were dancing / And I had a bad feeling": They both knew that they probably wouldn't be able to keep their relationship a secret forever.
From "Dress":
- "Our secret moments in a crowded room / They got no idea about me and you": This also refers to them keeping their relationship a secret.
From "Call It What You Want":
- "I want to wear his initial on a chain 'round my neck / Chain 'round my neck": In 2017, Swift was often seen wearing a necklace with his initials.
On December 10, they were seen at the London Jingle Ball slow dancing and kissing during Ed Sheeran's performance, singing "Perfect". "Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn are very much in love, they have quite a low-key relationship, which Taylor likes. It's normal, and no one really knows about it right now," a source said.
On April 6, 2018, it's reported that Swift bought a house in London to set down roots near him and his family.
On May 9, 2018, Swift kicked off the Reputation Stadium Tour in Arizona, and he was seen in the crowd. During the song "Gorgeous", she pointed at him.
On July 4, 2018, they are spotted vacationing in Turks & Caicos over the July 4th weekend.
In September, They both attended the New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center together for the screening of Alwyn's movie The Favourite and were photographed by paparazzi. Later, Swift promoted the movie on social media.
Alwyn was asked about Swift by Vogue, to which he said: “I’m aware people want to know about that side of things. I think we have been successfully very private and that has now sunk in for people, but I really prefer to talk about work.” In another interview, he was asked if it bothers him that she writes songs about him, but he said "No, not at all. It's flattering." In most of the interviews he did, he commented that he didn't want to talk about his relationship with her. Swift explained in an interview why she doesn't talk about their relationship: "I’ve learned that if I do, people think it’s up for discussion, and our relationship isn’t up for discussion."
On December 11, 2018, Swift attended the premiere of Alwyn's movie "Mary Queen of Scots". According to The Sun: "Taylor didn't want to draw attention to herself because it was really Joe's night, but she did want to support him and knew he would appreciate her being there, so she took steps to try and prevent anyone knowing she was there."
On January 6, 2019, They both attended the Golden Globe Awards and on February 10, they attended the BAFTAs, where Joe's movie was nominated in several categories. On February 24, They attended several Oscar parties and went to a Vanity Fair party.
On August 23, 2019, Swift released her seventh studio album, Lover. It included the following references to him:
From "Cruel Summer":
- "Said, "I'm fine," but it wasn't true / I don't wanna keep secrets just to keep you": This refers to her keeping their relationship a secret at the beginning of their relationship to protect it.
From "Lover":
- "I've loved you three summers now, honey, but I want 'em all": They both started dating towards the end of Summer 2016, which was three summers before the release of the album.
From "I Think He Knows":
- "He got that boyish look that I like in a man": Alwyn is younger than Swift and arguably has a 'boyish look'. She has also referred to him as a 'boy' in her lyrics before.
From "London Boy":
- "I saw the dimples first and then I heard the accent": He has dimples and a British accent.
- "Took me back to Highgate, met all of his best mates / So I guess all the rumors are true / You know I love a London boy": He was born and raised in London.
On January 5, 2020, they both publicly attended the Golden Globes together. They also attended the after party.
On January 31, Swift's documentary, Miss Americana was released and included footage of her hugging him after performing and home-videos he made of her. She said that she had fallen in love with someone who had a "wonderful, normal, balanced kind of life” and they wanted their relationship to be private. She also said that besides 2016 being a bad year, they were happy.
They both attended the 2020 NME Awards, and were seen kissing and hugging.
He co-wrote two songs on Swift's eight studio album, Folklore under the pseudonym William Bowery: "exile" and "betty". This was confirmed in Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions. Swift said the following about "exile": "Joe plays piano beautifully. He's always just playing and making things up and kind of creating things. Joe had written that entire piano part. He was singing the Bon Iver part, the 'I can see you standing honey, with his arms around your body, laughing but the joke's not funny at all.' He was just singing it. And I was entranced and asked if we could keep writing that one.". About "betty", Swift said: "I just heard Joe singing the entire, fully formed chorus of 'betty' from another room. 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?" Swift also confirmed that the song "peace" is about her relationship with him.
In an interview with Paul McCartney for Rolling Stone, Swift said the following about their relationship: "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."
Break-up[]
On April 8, 2023, various sources such as People stated that they both had allegedly broken up after six years of dating. Shortly after, a source close to them, believed to be Swift's publicist Tree Paine, explained the split was largely caused by "differences in their personalities." Alwyn attended Swift's Grammy Awards after party, and posted pictures of Meredith Grey on social media a few weeks before this information was announced. Swift released a song following their break-up titled "You're Losing Me". The song describes how Swift felt towards the end of their relationship, with her feeling that Alwyn was not fighting for them anymore. Speculation of earlier discrepancies between the couple arose when Jack Antonoff posted a photo from December 5, 2021, of Swift on the day that she and Antonoff recorded the song, leading fans to think that the couple may have hit rough patches before officially breaking up.
The songs "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys", "So Long, London", "loml", "The Black Dog", and "How Did It End?" on Swift's eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department are all speculated to be about Alwyn due to the references made to their relationship within the lyrics.
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