Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn have kept mum about the split in their six-year relationship. However, fans might have caught on to some subtle clues hinting at the end of their union, which were right there for everyone to see but somehow went unnoticed. The breakup went down in 2023, but, as per recent speculation, the relationship was on the rocks long before. These speculations began to take shape following Taylor Swift’s recent Eras Tour concert.

Just as the pop star was about to belt out one of her crowd favorites, she dropped some insight into her emotional state during its composition. And eagle-eyed fans immediately saw the connection.

Taylor Swift allegedly hinted at why she and Joe Alwyn split

Taylor Swift delivered a three-and-a-half-hour eye-popping spectacle in Melbourne last night. Apart from surprising fans with a medley of ‘Getaway Car’, ‘August’, and ‘The Other Side of the Door’, Swift also wowed the crowd with one of her standout hits from the 2020 album ‘Folklore’, ‘Betty’, which was allegedly also written by Joe Alwyn under the pseudonym William Bowery. Before beginning the song, Swift revealed that she imagined herself as a “lonely millennial woman” during her songwriting sessions.

She further added that she pictured herself “covered in cat hair“. Swift crafted and released ‘Folklore’ while she was dating Alwyn. Both stars worked together on the album in London, where they spent their lockdown alongside Swift’s three cats: Meredith Grey, Olivia Benson, and Benjamin Button. This sparked speculation among fans about whether Swift subtly hinted at the decay of her relationship with the Harriet star, which had begun during the album’s production. Swift has also discussed the origins of ‘Folklore’ in the past.

The songstress, in the same year as the album’s release, explained what precisely led her to start penning it during the lockdown.

Taylor Swift on creating her eighth studio album 

Taylor Swift sat for an interview with Entertainment Weekly in December 2020. In the interview, she revealed that making an album was not on her to-do list during the lockdown. At the beginning of quarantine, Taylor Swift and her then-boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, sat glued to their screens, binge-watching movies like everyone else on the planet. However, it was immersing herself in the art and storytelling of these movies that truly sparked her creative drive.

This experience unlocked a new dimension in her mind, motivating her to create characters and interweave narratives in her songs, something she had not experimented with before. Though everyone agrees that Swift has always been a brilliant wordsmith, ‘Folklore’ really stood out as a leap forward in her growth and maturity as a songwriter, regardless of what inspired her.

Do you think Joe Alwyn served as an inspiration behind ‘Folklore’? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!