Taylor Swift fans think she hinted at her split from Joe Alwyn over a week ago with a surprise addition to the setlist on her Eras tour.
After news of the pair’s split broke on April 9, fans took to Twitter to point out that Swift played performed song ‘The 1’ for the first time ever on March 31.
Fans speculated that her performance of the song – in which a narrator laments about breaking up with a possible soulmate – was Swift’s way of hinting she had split from Alwyn. The song replaced ‘Invisible String’ on the setlist – a song about soulmates being drawn together by fate.
The couple’s six-year relationship was marked by countless rumors they had gotten engaged – fueled by the the appearance of a large diamond ring on Swift’s finger in the 2020 documentary Miss Americana – and that they’d even been secretly married.
Despite years of apparent bliss, a source close to Swift confirmed the pair had split, saying: ‘Taylor and Joe broke up a few weeks ago. They simply grew apart and plan to remain friends.’
Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn in October 2022. It is one of the last photos of the pair together
Swift during the March 31 concert where she swapped out the song ‘Invisible String’ for ‘The 1’
Taylor Swift in the 2020 documentary Miss. Americana, wearing a large diamond on her finger
Swift is well known for lacing hints and easter eggs about her life into her music. When her album ‘Folklore’ was released in 2020, many speculated that ‘Invisible String’ was packed with clues suggesting it was about her and Alwyn’s relationship.
When it was swapped out for ‘The 1’ in March – noting before the performance, ‘You know, I’ve never played that song live before’ – fans didn’t bat an eye.
But when news of the possible split broke Sunday, fans sprang to Twitter to speculate that the performance was proof that rumors were real.
‘In her last show she replaced invisible string with the one… this is real,’ one fan wrote.
‘Y’all. Swapping ‘Invisible String’ for ‘The 1′ Taylor Swift at #TheErasTour was telling us something,’ said another.
‘I think for this reason Taylor was singing ‘the 1’ instead of ‘invisible string’ during the latest dates of #TSTheErasTour,’ said another.
‘IS THIS WHY TAYLOR SWIFT SWITCHED INVISIBLE STRING TO THE 1 IN HER SETLIST AHHHHH,’ wrote a distraught fan.
Others were simply impressed with her latest clue, with one writing ‘Taylor Swift switching out invisible string for the 1 on the eras tour……..the ultimate easter egg.’
Sources close to the couple told ET the break was amicable, and it was the explanation for ‘why [Alwyn] hasn’t been spotted at any shows.’
The pair hadn’t been pictured together for about five months – last being spotted together in New York City in October – with a source telling ET that month they were ‘doing great,’ and their ‘relationship is super strong.’
One of the first known photos of Swift and Alwyn, taken in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2018
Swift and Alwyn together in London in 2019, three years after they met in New York City
Swift and Alwyn in New York City in 2019. The pair reportedly broke up after six years together
Swift and Alwyn at the Golden Globe awards in Beverly Hills, California, in January 2020
Swift and Alwyn reportedly met when they crossed paths at the 2016 Met Gala.
After years of Swift’s relationships being obsessively scrutinized in the media, the couple went to lengths to keep their relationship out of the public eye. It wasn’t until more than a year after their meeting that they were photographed together in 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee.
During their early years together they would sometimes don disguises to visit each other or make outings together undetected, according to US Weekly, and Swift made frequent under the radar trips to Alwyn’s home city of London.
In October 2018, Alwyn told British Vogue that the secrecy around his and Swift’s relationship was intentional.
‘I’m aware people want to know about that side of things. I think we have been successfully private,’ he said.
Rumors about the couple’s longterm plans together were frequent, with sources telling outlets Swift thought she’d found her soulmate in Alwyn and that she was hoping they would get engaged.
That speculation soared in January 2020 with the release of Netflix’s documentary Swift, ‘Miss. Americana,’ in which she could be seen wearing a large diamond on her ring finger during an interview.
Many thought it was a sure-sign the engagement had finally come to pass, with some even suggesting they had secretly gotten married.
Months later in April, 2020, Alwyn addressed the rumors in an interview with WSJ Magazine, saying he wouldn’t confirm them even if they were true.
‘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,’ he said. ‘I mean, the truth is, if the answer was yes, I wouldn’t say, and if the answer was no, I wouldn’t say.’
Swift on March 31, the same concert where fans think she dropped hints about the breakup
Swift in her March 31 concert in Arlington, Texas. Alwyn had not been seen at a concert in weeks
Swift and Alwyn walk through New York City. They reportedly broke up several weeks ago
When the pandemic sent the world into quarantine in 2020, social media posts made by the couple indicated they were sheltering together, and even had even started co-writing songs together.
Then when Folklore was released, a mysterious man named William Bowery was given numerous songwriting credits, despite no trace of him existing anywhere else.
After the requisite speculation as to Bowery’s identity, Swift later confirmed the mystery man was her boyfriend.
‘There’s been a lot of discussion about William Bowery and his identity because it’s not a real person. So, William Bowery is Joe, as we know,’ she said on the Disney + concert special, Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions.
In addition to the speculation that the Folklore ‘Invisible String’ was about Swift’s relationship with Alwyn’s relationship, fans have long suspected that the title track and numerous songs off her 2019 album ‘Lover’ were also about him.
In 2020, Swift confided in a 2020 interview with Beatle Paul McCartney that she was drawn to Alwyn because of a sense of much needed normalcy and steadiness he brought to her life.
‘I, oftentimes, in my anxieties, can control how I am as a person and how normal I act and rationalize things, but I cannot control if there are 20 photographers outside in the bushes and what they do and if they follow our car and if they interrupt our lives,’ she said. ‘I can’t control if there’s going to be a fake weird headline about us in the news tomorrow.’
‘I think that in knowing him and being in the relationship I am in now, I have definitely made decisions that have made my life feel more like a real life and less like just a storyline to be commented on in tabloids.
‘Whether that’s deciding where to live, who to hang out with, when to not take a picture — the idea of privacy feels so strange to try to explain, but it’s really just trying to find bits of normalcy,’ she added.
It remains unclear why the pair might have now broken up after so many years. Neither Swift nor Alwyn have commented on the news.
Src: dailymail.co.uk
