Swift sounds off on weird rumours about relationship with Joe Alwyn

Taylor Swift is addressing how she copes with “weird rumours” about her six-year-relationship. The Grammy winner discussed her upcoming album, “Midnights,” in an Instagram video posted early on Friday, and the influence her long-term relationship with Joe Alwyn had on the first track, “Lavender Haze.”

“I happened upon the phrase ‘lavender haze’ when I was watching ‘Mad Men.’ And I looked it up, because I thought it sounded cool,” Swift, 32, said in the clip. “And it turns out that it’s a common phrase used in the 50s where they would just describe being in love, like if you were in the lavender haze that that meant you were in that all-encompassing love glow.”

Inspired by that “really beautiful” idea, Swift noted that, “Theoretically, when you’re in the lavender haze, you’ll do anything to stay there and not let people bring you down off of that cloud.

“And I think a lot of people have to deal with this now, not just like ‘public figures,’ because we live in the era of social media,” she continued. “And if the world finds out that you’re in love with somebody, they’re gonna weigh in on it. Like my relationship for 6 years, we’ve had to dodge weird rumours, tabloid stuff. And we just ignore it.

And so this song is sort of about the act of ignoring that stuff to protect the real stuff.” The rumour remark appeared to point, in part, toward reports in February that she and the British “Conversations with Friends” star, 31, were engaged. Days before that report, Alwyn said he is “obviously happy in a monogamous relationship.”

In April, while promoting the Hulu show, Alwyn — who is believed to have inspired several Swift songs starting with her 2017 album, “Reputation” — coyly addressed the chatter. “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,” Alwyn told WSJ Magazine at the time.

“I mean, the truth is, if the answer was yes, I wouldn’t say, and if the answer was no, I wouldn’t say.” Though little is known about the couple’s life together, outside of tidbits pieced together from songs believed to about Alwyn like “Delicate,” the couple collaborated on Swift’s 2020 album, “Folklore,” and took home Grammys.

While accepting the award for album of the year, Swift said she “had the best time writing songs with you in quarantine” and confirmed that Alwyn is “the first person that I play every single song that I write.”

At a time when artists are having a hard time cutting through the clutter of social media and the noise of the world, the 32-year-old Swift is doing everything right, engaging her fans and giving them so much to dine on that they can’t help but be captivated, and crave even more.

And she’s done it all without releasing a single piece of music from the album, proving the power of her persona apart from her songs.

Tribune News Service