Moments after Taylor Swift announced her latest upcoming album during the 2024 Grammys, fans and viewers alike noticed some not-so-subtle connections between the title of the album and one of her exes.
After taking home her 13th Grammy for best pop vocal album for her album Midnights, Swift announced that she will be releasing a new album titled The Tortured Poets Department on April 19.
"I want to say thank you to the members of the Recording Academy for voting this way. But I know that the way that the Recording Academy voted is a direct reflection of the passion of the fans," Swift said while accepting her award. "So I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I've been keeping from you for the last two years, which is that my brand new album comes out on April 19."
Shortly after, die-hard Swiftie fans and Grammy viewers alike recalled a fun little fact about Swift's ex, Joe Alwyn: He is a member of a so-called "tortured man club group chat."
Coincidence? I think not, Swiftie fans. We know better. As reported by People, after Alwyn opened up about his "special" group chat on WhatsApp in May, 2022, friend Paul Mescal said that a "third member" of the chat, Andrew Scott, actually "started the group."
"He's just on it every day. He's just on it by himself," Mescal said at the time.
"Just messaging himself good mornings," Alwyn quipped, before adding that they were "both in the Sally Rooney universe and crossed over with Lenny Abrahamson. We were so lucky to have that experience."
I case it wasn't obvious enough, in Swift's song "The Lakes" she writes some hardly subtle lines about her former boyfriend:
"Take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die.
I don't belong, and my beloved, neither do you.
Those Windermere peaks look like a perfect place to cry.
I'm setting off, but not without my muse."
These poignant lyrics took on a new meaning after Swift announced the album first on the Grammys stage and then via instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter.
In both posts, Swift shares what are presumably lyrics to her soon-to-be-released songs, including one eyebrow-raising line in particular: "Muses acquired like bruises."
Swift and Alwyn broke up in early 2023 after six years of dating, according to Entertainment Tonight who was the first to report the former couple's split.
A source later told People at the time that Swift and Alwyn ultimately split due to "differences in their personalities."
