Taylor Swift gets a lot of extremely unfair shit for dating celebrities and then writing songs about them.
But without Taylor’s openness and honesty about her romantic life and exes, we wouldn’t have some of her best lyrical work—including her collaboration with a certain someone who goes by the name William Bowery or an entire rerelease of Speak Now (come for the extended track list, stay for the John Mayer shade!). And, of course, we wouldn’t have the Swiftian magnum opus that is “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)(Taylor’s Version)[From the Vault]” if it weren’t for the twin flame bruise that painted her blue. Moving right along!
On that note, here’s a look back at everyone who has been lucky enough to date Taylor Swift.
Joe Jonas
July 2008—October 2008
Joe and Taylor barely dated, yet their breakup was somehow the most dramatic thing ever. Probably because he ended things over the phone—which Taylor confirmed during a November 2008 appearance on Ellen
“When I find that person who is right for me, he’ll be wonderful, and when I look at that person, I’m not even gonna be able to remember the boy who broke up with me over the phone in 25 seconds when I was 18.”
Taylor later released a Joe-inspired song called “Forever and Always,” which includes the pretty pointed lyrics, “Was I out of line? / Did I say something way too honest, made you run and hide / Like a scared little boy.” Yikes!
And while Taylor has since apologized for putting Joe on blast, just a fun reminder that in 2009, she mentioned their breakup in her Saturday Night Live opening monologue:
“You might think I’d bring up Joe, that guy who broke up with me on the phone. But I’m not going to mention him in my monologue. Hey, Joe! I’m doing real well and I’m hosting SNL—but I’m not going to write about that in my monologue.”
Lucas Till
March 2009—April 2009
Kay, so Lucas played the guy in Taylor’s “You Belong With Me” video, and apparently they dated for a minute. At least, according to Lucas, who told MTV
“We dated for a little bit. But there was no friction because we were too nice. We just really both liked each other…[but] most relationships work out ’cause you get along and then you don’t, and then you make up and it’s passionate, and with us, I really just liked her as a friend. That’s the only reason that didn’t work out.”
Taylor Lautner
Fall 2009
Taylor Squared was an item while filming Valentine’s Day, where they shared several iconic scenes together:
She allegedly wrote Speak Now’s “Back to December” about him, and when asked what he thought of the song in 2016, Twilight Taylor mused, “That’s what she does.”
Fast forward to 2023— T. Swift and “TayTay” are on good terms, Taylor Lautner married another Taylor (I know, it’s hard to keep up 😅), and the Twilight alum appeared in the Grammy winner’s music video for “I Can See You”:
John Mayer
December 2009—February 2010
Who can forget this relationship? NO ONE, THAT’S WHO. Taylor and John Mayer dated for just a few months, and their breakup was a massive mess thanks to John’s terrible reaction to Taylor writing “Dear John” about him.
John complained to Rolling Stone in an interview, saying, “I never got an email. I never got a phone call. I was really caught off guard, and it really humiliated me at a time when I’d already been dressed down. I mean, how would you feel if at the lowest you’ve ever been, someone kicked you even lower?”
He added, “I will say as a songwriter that I think it’s kind of cheap songwriting. I know she’s the biggest thing in the world, and I’m not trying to sink anybody’s ship, but I think it’s abusing your talent to rub your hands together and go, ‘Wait till he gets a load of this!’ That’s bullshit.”
@ John, you need to calm down.
Jake Gyllenhaal
October 2010—January 2011
Us Weekly broke the news of these two dating in a December 2010 cover story.
Fast-forward to January and the magazine reported that Jake broke up with Taylor completely randomly. “It was a 180-degree turn and so out of the blue,” a source said at the time. “Jake just told her it wasn’t working out.…Taylor is really upset and hurt. She doesn’t know what she did for him to put a stop to it. She feels really burned by him.”
A bunch of songs on Red were allegedly inspired by Jake and he was completely cool with them. Taylor didn’t exactly name names, but she *did* tell New York Magazine that the man in question told her…
“‘I just listened to the album, and that was a really bittersweet experience for me. It was like going through a photo album.’ That was nice. Nicer than, like, the ranting, crazy emails I got from this one dude. It’s a lot more mature way of looking at a love that was wonderful until it was terrible, and both people got hurt from it—but one of those people happened to be a songwriter. So what are you going to do? Did you not Wikipedia me before you called me up?”
Connor Kennedy
July 2012—October 2012
Good ol’ Us Weekly also broke the news of Connor and Taylor’s relationship after they were photographed together in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, and an onlooker revealed that “Connor put his arm around Taylor and they kissed behind the boat shed.”
The good news is the split was “totally amicable and down to the distance between them,” according to E!, but I’m personally still bummed Taylor didn’t become a casual Kennedy.
Harry Styles
November 2012—January 2013
Q: How much coffee have you had? Because the Harry Styles section of this timeline is best described as exhausting despite spanning just three months. Rumors about Haylor started flying around after Tay was spotted wearing Harry’s silver airplane necklace—which she also wore in the video for her track “Out of the Woods.”
In December, these two “went public” when they were photographed strolling around the Central Park Zoo—but after just a few months of dating and one vacation where Taylor was seen sitting alone on a boat, Haylor broke up. Things were pretty awkward henceforth, especially when Taylor dissed Harry during her 2013 Grammys performance by using an English accent.
“Two Ghosts,” a track off of Harry’s self-titled debut solo album, is also rumored to be about Tay:
Since then, these two have kept things pretty friendly over the years. They reunited at the 2021 Grammys (which set the internet ablaze, BTW) and again at the 2023 Grammys.
Calvin Harris
February 2015—May 2016
Taylor and Calvin met at the Elle Style Awards in February, and good news
A month later, they were spotted in matching outfits at a Whole Foods in Nashville, the setting of all love stories.
Tayvin went public at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards in May, and they even kissed for the cameras.
The pair celebrated their one-year anniversary on March 6, 2017…
But then two months later, People reported that Calvin broke things off. The breakup was deeply messy, with Calvin lowkey accusing Taylor of cheating in some song lyrics.
Tom Hiddleston
May 2016—September 2016
Remember when Taylor was dating the poor lost soul known as Tom Hiddleston? No? Well, here’s a reminder. This unlikely relationship started at the Met Gala, where Taylor and Tom were seen dancing the night away
Then June rolled around and The Sun published pictures of them kissing atop a rocky outcrop in Rhode Island. The internet had questions! Questions like, Were these pictures staged, y/n?
Things went full steam ahead after the photos went viral. Tom met Taylor’s parents in Nashville, they were seen dancing at a Selena Gomez concert, and Tom was spotted wearing an “I HEART TS” tank top while frolicking in the ocean with Taylor and a bunch of supermodels.
Alas, things went south for the couple in September 2016, with sources saying Taylor was worried Tom wasn’t with her for the right reasons.
Joe Alwyn
May 2017—April 2023
Taylor and Joe met on The! First! Monday! In! May! which is the fancy way of saying at the Met Gala. To be honest, this hasn’t *actually* been confirmed by anyone, but fans think Taylor’s song “Dress” implies they had a moment at the event based on these lyrics: “Flashback to when you met me / Your buzz cut / And my hair bleached.”
Reminder: This is what Tay looked like on that fated night (yeah, same Met Gala as that scarring Instagram video above, and apparently Joe, not pictured, had a buzz cut):
An entire year later, British tabloid The Sun broke the news that Taylor and Joe were dating, that she’d been staying in London in disguise, and that she and Joe were “the real deal.” Then in December 2017, Jaylor were seen publicly swaying at an Ed Sheeran concert.
And in March 2018, she wore his initials around her neck
Flash-forward to September of that year, and Taylor was spotted sneaking into the premiere of Joe’s new movie The Favourite—and yes, paps were there to snap pics:
In February 2019, they were spotted getting super cozy at the BAFTAs. Things have been going strong ever since, with Joe (er, William Bowery) collaborating with Taylor on Folklore and the singer addressing her now-six-year romance with the actor on her latest album, Midnights.
In April 2023, however, Entertainment Tonight reported that Taylor and Joe’s love story had ended, citing intel that the split was “not dramatic” and “the relationship had just run its course. It’s why [Joe] hasn’t been spotted at any shows [during her Eras Tour].”
You can get a full rundown of their relationship this way, bye!
Matty Healy
May 2023—June 2023
Okay, buckle up, because this one goes allll the way back to 2014, when Tay and Matty first met. While the pair started out as friends, rumors swirled that Taylor was dating The 1975 frontman and in 2016, he made some not-so-friendly comments about the possibility of that happening.
Fast forward to January 2023: Tay makes a random surprise appearance at The 1975’s show at the O2 Arena in London, where she performs “Anti-Hero” live for the first time as well as a cover of the band’s song, “The City”
Then, in May 2023, more Matty dating rumors began circulating as Tay was fresh off her 6-year relationship with Joe Alwyn. According to Entertainment Tonight, an anonymous source dished that “Taylor and Matty have been hanging out recently, and Jack Antonoff reconnected them.”
After Matty said some questionable things about Taylor’s gal pal and “Karma” collaborator, Ice Spice, they seemed to call it quits.
Travis Kelce
July 2023—Right Now
Ah, yes, now we’re in our current Taylor ~dating era~ (sorry, had to). In July 2023, Tay brought her Eras Tour to Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City—AKA the office of Travis Kelce, the tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs. The NFL player attended the show and he was on 👏 a👏 mission👏 as he made a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it for the Grammy winner.
“If you’re up on Taylor Swift concerts, there are friendship bracelets, and I received a bunch of them being there, but I wanted to give Taylor Swift one with my number on it,” he said on an episode of his New Heights podcast:
While he wasn’t able to shoot his shot back then, it seems that there was an *invisible string* holding that friendship bracelet together… because Taylor pretty much confirmed they started dating right after that.
“This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,” Taylor told TIME. “We started hanging out right after that. So we actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for, because we got to get to know each other. By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple. I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard launch a first date.”
She continued, “When you say a relationship is public, that means I’m going to see him do what he loves, we’re showing up for each other, other people are there and we don’t care. The opposite of that is you have to go to an extreme amount of effort to make sure no one knows that you’re seeing someone. And we’re just proud of each other.”
Tay pulled up to not one, but two (!!) Chiefs games in September to support him, and the rest was history as Travis came to the Eras Tour in Argentina and she swapped her “Karma” lyrics:
