Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn’s Relationship: A Complete Timeline
Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn are definitely a couple (and possibly about to get engaged), but so much of their relationship is shrouded in secrecy. Think: Harry Styles, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Tom Hiddleston, for example. There were tabloid stories, Instagram posts, and overt song lyrics that gave the public so much information to analyze. Swift’s relationship with Alwyn is a different story.
Recently, however, the couple has started stepping out at public events together a bit more. “Keeping it private from the beginning really helped their relationship,” a source recently told People. “They were able to get to know each other in peace.” The source also adds, “Their personalities are very compatible, and they’re respectful of each other’s careers.”
Sounds like a great match, so let’s break down how their relationship formed in the first place.
May 2016: Swift and Alwyn each attend the 2016 Met Gala. Do they meet then? It’s unclear exactly when the pair did meet, but people think it was at the event based on lyrics in Swift’s song “Dress”: “Flashback when you met me / Your buzz cut and my hair bleached.” They did indeed have those hairstyles at the time. Swift broke up with boyfriend Calvin Harris soon after the gala and started dating Hiddleston. That relationship ended by September 2016.
October 2016: Eagle-eyed fans figure out Swift and Alwyn attended the same Kings of Leon concert and after-party at the Bowery Hotel in New York City.
May 2017: Stories break that Swift has a new British boyfriend: Joe Alwyn. At the time he was not well known, especially to Swift’s American fans, with the biggest credit on his IMDB being Ang Lee’s Billy Lynn’s Longtime Walk. But he was a rising star with a number of high-profile movies in the works, including The Favourite and Mary Queen of Scots.
“Taylor and Joe are the real deal, this is a very serious relationship,” The Sun reported at the time. “But after what happened with Tom Hiddleston, they were determined to keep it quiet.” The Sun also reported Swift was renting a house in North London, near Alwyn.
June 2017: Photographic evidence of the relationship emerges as the paparazzi finally catch Swift and Alwyn together—having coffee on a balcony in Nashville. They’re snapped again in New York City the following month.