Actor Joe Alwyn has revealed why he is determined to keep his five-year relationship with Taylor Swift private.
The 31-year-old criticised an “increasingly intrusive” culture that led to his decision to keep their relationship out of the spotlight.
In an interview with ELLE magazine, Alwyn said: “It’s not really [because I] want to be guarded and private, it’s more a response to something else.
“We live in a culture that is so increasingly intrusive… The more you give – and frankly, even if you don’t give it – something will be taken.”
Alwyn and Swift began dating in 2017, but rarely speak or post on social media about one another.
The Conversations With Friends star previously told GQ Magazine that he values with privacy and said: “Someone’s private life is, by definition, private. No one is obliged to share their personal life.”
He also declined to name a favourite Swift song, adding: “I’m just not even going to go into that side of the world.”
Swift has also previously spoken about keeping their relationship under wraps, telling the Guardian in 2019 that it “isn’t up for discussion”.
She said that if she were speaking to the interviewer as a friend and not on the record, she would talk about it, adding: “But it’s just that it goes out into the world. That’s where the boundary is and that’s where my life has become manageable. I really want to keep it feeling manageable.”
Alwyn co-wrote several songs for Swift’s albums folklore and evermore, and is credited under the pseudonym William Bowery.
He helped write the tracks “exile” and “Betty” on the surprise album folklore, which was released in July 2020, and also received credit on the songs “champagne problems”, “coney island”, and “evermore”.
Fans believe that the song “Dress” on Swift’s 2017 album Reputation referred to the moment the couple met, which is believed to be at the 2016 Met Gala.
In the lyrics, Swift wrote: “Flashbacks to when you met me, your buzzed cut and my hair bleached.”
At the Met Gala that year, Swift appeared with bleached hair and wore a custom Louis Vuitton metallic dress with lace-up stilettos. Meanwhile, Alwyn attended the fashion event with a short buzz cut.
