The Reported Reason Joe Alwyn Never Talks About Taylor Swift

Among the reasons Taylor Swift fans couldn’t stand Joe Alwyn was the refusal of the “Conversations with Friends” star to speak about his relationship with his girlfriend of six years. While Swifties love it when she drops clues about her relationships in her songs, Alwyn led them on the most frustrating Easter egg hunt ever — because he hid no eggs for them to find. What some Jaylor skeptics discovered instead were major red flags in Swift’s relationship with Alwyn.

At least Alwyn respectfully kept his lips sealed about his ex after she potentially shared intimate details of their relationship in the song “So Long, London.” After the pair split, one source explained to People that Alwyn had wanted his relationship to be “his own personal story.” However, Swift’s boyfriends know what they sign up for when they date her; she’s mastered the art of combing through her past romances, plucking out painful memories, and turning that hurt into hit music.

In “So Long, London,” she portrays herself as a long-suffering lover exhausted from the strain of holding her relationship together. “My spine split from carrying us up the hill,” she sings, later adding, “I’m pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free.” Because the song references a long relationship with a London native, the general assumption is that the lyrics are about Alwyn. All’s fair in love and war, but was it wrong of Swift to choose a target who likely won’t fire back?