Joe Alwyn Urges People To Move On From His Taylor Swift Relationship

Joe Alwyn would very much like to be excluded from this narrative. Even though the actor’s breakup with Taylor Swift was nearly two years ago (or maybe even further in the past, if you believe the theories), the failed romance is still top of mind whenever Alwyn is brought up. It probably doesn’t help that the split got a ton of renewed attention thanks to some telling lyrics on Swift’s latest album. But now that things are officially over, Alwyn wants everyone to move on.

In a Jan. 5 interview with The Guardian, Alwyn was asked if he’d like to “move on” from the topic of Swift, replying that he’s already done that, but everyone else seems to be stuck on it. “That’s something for other people to do,” Alwyn said. “We’re talking about something that’s a while ago now in my life. So that’s for other people. That’s what I feel.”

While Alwyn isn’t keen on speaking about his relationship with Swift, he did offer some rare insight into the music the former couple created together. Alwyn has a handful of writing credits on Swift’s albums Folklore and Evermore, under the pseudonym William Bowery. He revealed that the Folklore fave “Exile” was first conceived when Swift overheard him messing around on the piano in 2020.

“Lockdown was a whole host of surprises and that was pretty special,” Alwyn said. “That was not something I would have foreseen.”

Alwyn famously began dating Swift in 2016, at the same time as his first lead movie role in Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. The then-unknown actor was immediately thrust into a world of obsessive fans and media scrutiny.

“I have tried just to focus on controlling what I can control,” Alwyn told The Guardian of how he’s dealt with all the attention around his personal life. “And, right from the beginning, tried to focus on the things that are meaningful for me: friends, family, work, of course. So noise outside of that, I think I’ve done what lots of people who find themselves in the public eye do, which is just try and ignore it. If you don’t, and if you let all of that other stuff in, and if it starts to affect you and your behavior, you’re living from the outside in. And then you’re pretty f*cked.”