Taylor Swift Seemingly Agrees With Swifties' Opinion Of Her High-Profile Loves
Taylor Swift has one strict rule when it comes to her art. Although the Grammy winner is happy to write songs about her life and share her perspective on relationships, she doesn't necessarily want people to speculate about the inspirations behind them. When Swift appeared on "The Morning Show," in 2014, the interviewer was determined to find out if her song "Style" was about her ex, Harry Styles. After dodging her persistent questions, the singer-songwriter reasoned, "The only way that I can actually be vulnerable with this many people is to never name names."
She continued, "I want these songs to go out into the world and become whatever my fans want them to be." Swift further noted that she would prefer it if listeners attributed the songs to their own heartbreaks instead of hers. The "I Knew You Were Trouble" hitmaker did acknowledge that people will probably always speculate about who her songs are about but she refuses to offer up any information. Given all this, it was highly surprising when, in 2024, Swift seemingly liked an Instagram carousel that featured a ranking of all the men in her complex dating history.
The final snap even made a joke about how reading lyrics from Swift's 11th album, "The Tortured Poets Department," led people to think of her longtime boyfriend Joe Alwyn as a tribute from "The Hunger Games" who passed away. It's worth noting that the "Shake It Off" singer has since un-liked the post. So, she may not have scrolled to the third and fourth slides that alluded to her exes and instead simply focused on the first image, which detailed the highs and lows of being a Swiftie.
Taylor Swift has publicly called out some of her exes
In the early years of Taylor Swift's career, she didn't shy away from letting her exes know they had wronged her. When the singer-songwriter delivered her "Saturday Night Live" monologue in 2009, she name-dropped her ex, Joe Jonas, and called him out for ending their relationship by phone. Likewise, an old MySpace video showed her joking about Jonas' doll coming with a phone so he could comfortably break up with his girlfriend. While the real Swift's heart already seemed broken, she didn't want her doll to meet with the same fate, so she warned her to stay away from the "Sucker" singer's counterpart (via YouTube).
A few years later, the "Cruel Summer" hitmaker seemingly called out another famous ex, fellow singer-songwriter John Mayer, through a scathing ballad knowingly entitled "Dear John." The track alluded to how an older flame (Mayer was 32 when he dated a then-19-year-old Swift) had manipulated and hurt her. As you can imagine, Mayer wasn't too pleased with his portrayal. During a 2012 Rolling Stone interview, he claimed that he felt blindsided by the release because Mayer didn't think he had done anything to warrant such a reaction. The "Gravity" singer also had some cutting words of his own for his former girlfriend.
"I will say as a songwriter that I think it's kind of cheap songwriting," Mayer argued. "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 bulls***."
She doesn't hold grudges against any of them anymore
Hindsight has enabled Taylor Swift to adopt a gentler perspective about some of her former flames, at the very least. Over the years, the "Blank Space" hitmaker has forged friendships with several exes, including Harry Styles, Taylor Lautner, and Joe Jonas. When Swift appeared on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," in 2008, she alluded to her breakup with Jonas by reasoning that finding true love would make her forget the man who broke up with her over a phone call that lasted less than 30 seconds. However, when she returned to the chat show a decade later, Swift acknowledged that she went slightly overboard with her criticism.
The "Fortnight" songstress confirmed that it was all water under the bridge now because they could laugh about her past disses. Swift also gave a heartfelt shoutout to Jonas and his now ex-wife, Sophie Turner, in "Invisible String," off her eighth album "Folklore." The lines, "Cold was the steel of my axe to grind / For the boys who broke my heart / Now I send their babies presents," referenced how she had matured enough to be happy about the arrival of the couple's first child, Willa, in 2020. While Swift hasn't said much about John Mayer, she called for online kindness ahead of the "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)" release.
As far as diehard Switfies and casuals alike are concerned, the album includes several digs at him. The Grammy winner stressed that she was in a much better place mentally than the 19-year-old who wrote those songs and didn't need anyone to stand up for her.