When Taylor Swift released her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, last month, listeners were caught off guard by just how much of the 31-track album appeared to be about her former flame Matty Healy.
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Fans initially thought that the two only enjoyed a brief one-month fling in May 2023, shortly after Taylor’s split from her boyfriend of six years, Joe Alwyn, was announced.
However, Taylor’s album appeared to confirm a long-running theory that she and Matty initially tried dating when they first met back in 2014.
What followed was seemingly a nine-year, on-again, off-again situationship. But when they finally went public with their romance a year ago, Taylor faced fierce backlash from people due to Matty’s problematic reputation.
His controversies include appearing to do a Nazi salute on stage, and candidly saying that he masturbates to Black women being “brutalized.”
Despite this, Taylor remained defiant over the relationship, and even appears to lash out at her own fans as she reflects on this period in her life in her song “But Daddy I Love Him.”
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However, in addition to seemingly doubling down on her romance with Matty on her new album, many songs also angrily call him out for the way that things ended between them.
It was reported that Taylor and Matty had called time on their romance in early June, just over one month after it was first made public.
More information wasn’t given about the split at the time, but Taylor suggests on her new album that Matty ghosted her as she questions what his intentions with her were in the first place.
And while lyrical interpretation is subjective, and none of Taylor’s new songs are officially confirmed to be about him, it is widely believed that Matty is the inspiration behind Taylor’s brutal diss track “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” among many others.
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She also appears to accuse Matty of lovebombing her and praying on her weaknesses following her split from Joe, hinting that he promised her marriage and babies after she was apparently left upset with her ex for not marrying her despite how long they were together.
This prompts Taylor to seemingly refer to Matty as a “conman” as she questions if the whole thing had been a “joke” or a “hazing for a cruel fraternity” on his side, even asking: “Were you sent by someone who wanted me dead?”
Despite the furor that Taylor’s album caused upon its release, Matty played it cool when he was questioned about it by the paparazzi.
When asked how he felt about Taylor’s “diss track,” the singer nonchalantly replied: “My diss track? Oh! I haven’t really listened to that much of it, but I’m sure it’s pretty good.”
And his mom, British TV personality Denise Welch, was just as coy when the topic came up on her live daytime show Loose Women, the UK’s version of The Talk.
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When her fellow panelists asked if she’d heard any of Taylor’s new music, Denise replied: “I wasn’t aware she had an album out at all. I haven’t heard anything about it.”
“Anyway,” she added. “I wish her all the best.”
But fans have now caught Denise liking a shady Instagram video about Taylor’s music, with the star’s telltale like visible on comedian Henry Rowley’s recent upload at the time of writing.
Instagram @denise_welch / Via instagram.com
The video is captioned “Every Taylor Swift Song ever,” and it shows Harry mocking the superstar’s songwriting and seemingly poking fun at the tired misconception that all of her music is about her exes.
Instagram @henryrowleyy / Via instagram.com
He starts by badly singing: “Now I think we never really should have broke up, and now I’m really sad that we did.”
Instagram @henryrowleyy / Via instagram.com
Harry then appears to indirectly reference Matty’s controversies, as well as the confused reaction Taylor recently received for her pointed lyric about racism in her song “I Hate It Here.” He sings: “The only thing I hate more than you is racism.”
“You broke my heart beyond words apart from these ones: pain, suffering, depression,” he continues. “Love, love, love, heartbreak, vengeance, and love.”
“We broke up, now we’re getting back together, hahaha, that was a joke, I’d never get back with him,” Harry sings as the video ends.
Discussing Denise’s social media activity on a Reddit forum, one user pointed out that Denise had also liked a “Team Matty” photo from a bar called The Black Dog in Cork, Ireland — a venue that was seemingly name-checked by Taylor in her song “The Black Dog,” which is also thought to be about Matty.
Instagram @blackdogcork / Via instagram.com
“she also liked this 💀💀 shes being messyyy,” they wrote. One more asked: “why can’t she worry about her son being waves hand in the general direction of Matty healy like that?”
“This is peak Boy Mom™️ energy if I’ve ever seen it,” somebody else commented. While another couldn’t help but reference the dignified silence from Joe and his family since his and Taylor’s split last year, joking: “Joe Alwyn’s mom would NEVER.”
Taylor started dating NFL star Travis Kelce just over one month after her and Matty’s split, and Matty has been linked to model Gabbriette Bechtel since September.
