Taylor Swift has finally dropped The Tortured Poets Department, following weeks of toying with our emotions and dropping mysterious hint after mysterious hint.
Now that the songs we were expecting and the surprise extra songs on the "Anthology" version of the album have dropped, of course it's now time for the analyzing and the conspiracy theorizing to begin re: all the lyrics on the album.
It’s a 2am surprise: The Tortured Poets Department is a secret DOUBLE album. ✌️ I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you, so here’s the second installment of TTPD: The Anthology. 15 extra songs. And now the story isn’t mine… pic.twitter.com/y8pyDK8VTdApril 19, 2024
Chief among the fan theories is the narrative that Joe Alwyn potentially cheated on Swift at some point in their six-year relationship.
I would like to take this moment to caveat that nobody has confirmed this to be true, and that we're all just working with the hints we have—meaning any conclusions you come to should be taken with a grain of salt.
One "clue" that there was infidelity between Alwyn and Swift is the song "Fortnight" with Post Malone, on which the popstar sings the line, "My husband is cheating, I wanna kill him."
The rest of the song sounds like it could be referring to Swift's brief situationship with Matty Healy after the breakup, but other words in the song, such as "your wife waters flowers," don't really make sense in reference to Healy. It's important to note here that Swift's lyrics are usually focused on storytelling, and don't necessarily outline exact events that have transpired in her life.
JOE CHEATED OOOOOOOOOO ITS SO JOEVER pic.twitter.com/OlxFEQCnYZApril 19, 2024
"JOE CHEATED OOOOOOOOOO ITS SO JOEVER," wrote one person.
"So Joe definitely cheated on her, right?" said another.
"yeah joe definitely cheated on taylor and nothing can change my mind. so long london said it all," commented someone else.
I personally don't see how "So Long London" could refer to cheating, but the lyrics are here if you want to go down that rabbit hole.
Meanwhile, before we skate over the word "husband in "Fortnight," another fan tweeted, "SO TAYLOR JUST CONFIRMED HER AND JOE WERE MARRIED AND HE CHEATED?!?!?!?"
Throughout their relationship, rumors that Swift and Alwyn had gotten engaged and/or married kept popping up every few months. However, Swift's publicist Tree Paine once strongly denied these allegations.
As for the cheating thing, fans thought that during a February show, Swift "confirmed" that Alwyn had been unfaithful via a song mashup. Again, this could very well be a strong reach and have absolutely no basis in reality. Thanks for listening!
