Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn’s Breakup: Everything We Know

After six years together, Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn shocked fans in April 2023 with news of their breakup. At the time, a source close to the pair confirmed to PEOPLE that the recording artist and her actor boyfriend were going their separate ways.

News of the split came while the “Anti-Hero” singer was traveling the country for her sold-out Eras tour, at which the Conversations with Friends star hadn’t been spotted.

Though the Grammy winner had kept her romance with Alwyn largely out of the spotlight during the course of their relationship, she did give a few glimpses of their love story through her music.

Since releasing Reputation in 2017, Swift has written numerous tracks about the English actor, from flirty pop songs to romantic records. Fans even believed she alluded to their split during an Eras Tour show when she swapped one of her love ballads for a wistful breakup tune.

In addition to being the singer’s muse, Alwyn collaborated with Swift on her projects, including writing songs for folklore, evermore and Midnights under the pseudonym William Bowery.

Here’s everything to know about Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn’s split, from why it happened to what they’re up to now.

When did Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn break up?

On April 8, 2023, Entertainment Tonight reported that a source close to the couple revealed their breakup had happened a “few weeks ago,” though the exact timing wasn’t specified.

Around that same time, Swift had notably changed the Eras Tour setlist on her March 31, 2023, stop at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, swapping out folklore‘s sweet paean to soulmates “Invisible String” for the nostalgic look back at a lost love “The 1” from the same album.

Why did Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn break up?

A source close to the “All Too Well” singer and the Harriet actor told PEOPLE their split was largely caused by “differences in their personalities” that became “harder to ignore after years together.”

“They’ve had rough patches before and always worked things out, so friends thought they would take some time apart but eventually come back together,” the source said in April 2023, noting that “ultimately” Swift and Alwyn “weren’t the right fit for one another.”

The insider added that Swift’s superstardom was another factor in the breakup, saying, “Joe has struggled with Taylor’s level of fame and the attention from the public.”

In addition to the challenges of life in the limelight, the source explained that Alwyn and Swift had “grown apart.”

Though the couple had been discussing marriage, according to multiple sources, “Taylor didn’t see them working out in the long run,” one insider said.

Has Taylor Swift commented on the breakup?

Many Swifties think she alluded to the breakup during the March 31, 2023, stop of her Eras Tour, when she swapped out “Invisible String,” a song fans believe Swift wrote about Alwyn being her soulmate, for “The 1,” a breakup tune about wishing things could have worked out with an ex.

Fans also noted that Swift’s Arlington, Texas, concert on April 1 featured “Death by a Thousand Cuts” and “Clean” as the surprise acoustic songs, two tracks notably about getting through a big breakup.

In May 2023, some Swifties noticed the singer-songwriter had deleted an Instagram video wherein she explained the meaning behind “Lavender Haze,” which appears on her 2022 Midnights album.

“I happened upon the phrase ‘Lavender Haze’ when I was watching Mad Men, and I looked it up because I thought it sounded cool,” Swift said in the now-deleted post. “And it turns out that it’s a common phrase used in the ’50s, where they would just describe being in love.”

The pop star previously explained that the song was written about her relationship with Alwyn.

That same month, the singer released Midnights (Til Dawn Edition), which featured the vault track “You’re Losing Me,” another breakup record Swifties believed was also written about their split. “Do I throw out everything we built or keep it?/ I’m getting tired,” Swift sings before repeatedly pleading “Stop, you’re losing me” in the melancholic chorus.

Swift further sings about her breakup from Alwyn in The Tortured Poets Department, noting how she feels a longtime partner wasted her time on a relationship that went nowhere.

“And I’m pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free,” she sings on “So Long, London,” reflecting what she had told Time about wanting to live freely. “Me locking myself away in my house for a lot of years — I’ll never get that time back,” she told the outlet.

On “Fresh Out the Slammer,” Swift further shares how isolated she felt in her relationship. “Another summer taking cover/ Rolling thunder, he don’t understand me/ Splintered back in winter/ Silent dinner, bitter he was with her in dreams,” she sings.

Has Joe Alwyn commented on the breakup?

Like Swift, Alwyn has not publicly commented on the breakup. However, as of April 2024, he does still follow the singer on Instagram and previously liked her Eras Tour rehearsal pictures on March 16, 2023.

Following the release of The Tortured Poets Department, an Alwyn source told PEOPLE that the British actor intentionally kept his relationship with the pop superstar private. Despite the intense public interest in the relationship, Alwyn wanted the romance to remain “his own personal story,” the source said.

What has Taylor Swift been up to since their breakup?

Despite not being a couple anymore, a source told PEOPLE in April 2023 that Swift and Alwyn were still “friendly,” adding: “She doesn’t have anything bad to say about Joe. They just grew apart. Taylor is staying very focused on her tour right now.”

The same weekend the breakup news was announced, Swift was spotted filming a music video in Liverpool, England, on April 9.

A couple of days later, she stepped out in New York City for a casual dinner with her frequent music collaborator Jack Antonoff and his now-wife, Drive-Away Dolls actress Margaret Qualley, at Via Carota, an Italian restaurant about a four-minute walk from Cornelia Street, a subject of one of Swift’s songs from her 2019 Lover album and where she once rented a home.

Swift has since moved on from her relationship with Alwyn, having sparked a romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Following months of dating rumors after Kelce attended one of her Eras Tour shows in July 2023, Swift and the athlete made their relationship public when they were pictured holding hands at a Saturday Night Live afterparty that October.

Amidst continuing her Eras Tour and rerecording her past albums — with previous Easter eggs seeming to signal Reputation (Taylor’s Version) is on the way — Swift revealed plans for releasing new music in 2024.

On Feb. 4, 2024, Swift announced her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, at the Grammys while accepting the award for best pop vocal album, and in April 2024, she shared the album with the world.

Noting the songs came from a time that was both “sensational and sorrowful,” Swift added that the “period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up.”

“There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed,” she continued. “And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted. This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it.”

What has Joe Alwyn been up to after their breakup?

Alwyn has been busy with a few movie projects, including Aneil Karia’s modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic Hamlet alongside Riz Ahmed. News of the project was first announced in May 2022, with filming slated to begin that summer in London.

In October 2022, he was cast in Yorgos Lanthimos‘ multifaceted fable Kinds of Kindness alongside his former Favourite costar Emma Stone, who attended Swift’s opening night of her Eras Tour in March 2023. The film arrives in theaters on June 21, 2024.

On April 11, 2023, it was announced that principal photography had begun in Hungary on the movie The Brutalist, wherein Alwyn stars alongside Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce and Alessandro Nivola.

A week later, on April 18, his costar Emma Laird shared a photo of Alwyn riding a scooter in a carousel of images of the cast. It’s unclear exactly when Alwyn’s photo was taken, though Laird’s caption seemed to imply it was snapped in March, just before PEOPLE had confirmed Alwyn and Swift’s split.