Isn’t it just so pretty to think, all along there were some invisible strings? It turns out Taylor and Matty weren’t just a summer fling but more of a 10-year ‘situationship’.
Here is a complete timeline of their relationship dating back to 2014 to the present day.
7th November 2014: Matty wears a ‘1989’ t-shirt at his show in Milwaukee
Just a week after Taylor released her fifth studio album ‘1989’, Matty was seen dancing around the stage in Taylor’s merchandise. Which she reshared on her personal Tumblr, with the caption “#thatsmyfavouritebandthough #WHAT.”
20th November 2014: Taylor attends a 1975 show
She also shared multiple Polaroid photos taken from that night with Selena Gomez and Ellie Goulding.
Most recently, an unseen photo emerged of Matty, Taylor and Selena sitting together laughing after the show.
23rd November 2014: Taylor spotted in The 1975 merch
Just 3 days after she was at The 1975 show, Taylor strutted around Los Angeles in her merch from the concert. Going to the Eras Tour this year? This is an outfit idea if you’re a 1975 fan and a Swifty!
29th November 2014: The exchange of numbers
Following Taylor attendance at the Los Angeles show, Healy revealed they exchanged numbers backstage after the show.
He later added – “I mean bloody hell, what am I going to do? Go out with Taylor Swift? She’s a sensation, I wouldn’t say no.”
20th Janurary 2015: Matty shuts down dating rumors
Matty addressed the speculations surrounding their relationship during an interview with Australia’s 2DayFm.
He said, “She’s the biggest pop star in the world and I’m in Australia. There’s no relationship or anything happening. It’s just funny how people really, really buy into that.”
25th February 2015: Taylor and Matty seen together at the Universal Music Brits party in London
Taylor won the International Female Solo Artist Award at the 2015 Brit Awards, where she also performed her hit single ‘Blank Space.‘
Taylor later attended the after-party where she danced the night away with singer Ellie Goulding, radio host Nick Grimshaw, and of course, Matty. That same evening, Ellie Goulding introduced Taylor to Calvin Harris, and their romance blossomed.
17th March 2016: Matty says dating Taylor would be “emasculating”
Matty suggested that dating Taylor would have been ’emasculating’ for him because of her huge global fame. He also criticized the media’s coverage of his “flirtation” with Taylor.
According to NME, he claimed that “It’s not really anything to talk about, because if she wasn’t Taylor Swift we wouldn’t be talking about her. She wasn’t a big impact on my life. It’s just interesting to me how interested the world is about Taylor Swift.”
A mere 3 days later, he clarified his comments in a lengthy Twitter thread, writing “I am not a misogynist.”
He also described Taylor as “one of the most gracious, hardworking, creatively gifted, and beautiful women that I have had the pleasure to meet.”
12 February 2020: The NME Awards
After 4 years, Taylor and Matty were seen interacting with each other at the 2020 NME awards, where The 1975 won awards for Best British Band and the Innovation Award. Taylor won the award for Best Solo In The World Award.
Taylor attended the awards with her ex-boyfriend, Joe Alwyn. Matty was there with his ex-girlfriend FKA Twigs who had also won an NME Award for Best British Solo.
He later said he wanted to ask Taylor to collaborate on a country album but was to nervous to follow through with the question he told Zane Lowe on New Music Daily on Apple Music.
Matty also said, “She was just stood behind me. I mean, I haven’t seen Taylor in years so it was actually a really nice room.”
29th November 2022: Matty Reveals he worked on ‘Midnights’ with Taylor
‘Midnights’ was released just one week before The 1975’s ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’ was released, both which were produced by Jack Antonoff.
Matty said during an interview that Taylor had “heard some of his new album through Jack.” He also added that he “collaborated with Taylor on ‘Midnights’ but their versions didn’t make the cut.”
12th January 2023: Taylor makes a surprise performance at The 1975 show in London
2020 to 2022 saw little interaction between the pair, despite them both releasing new albums, Taylor releasing ‘Midnights’ and Matty releasing ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’ with his band The 1975. They both shared their reactions to each other’s albums on their public social media accounts.
Until January 2023, Matty shocked both Swifties and 1975 fans when Taylor came out as a surprise guest on their ‘The 1975 At Their Very Best Tour’ in London. She performed her first live performance of ‘Anti-Hero’ her hit single from ‘Midnights’. And a cover of The 1975’s song ‘The City’ on the guitar. Coincidence she sang ‘The City’ just 9 years after the rumours started, no?
8th April 2023: Taylor and Joe Alwyn break up
It was reported that Taylor and Joe broke up after six years of dating. At the same time Taylor was in the middle of ‘The Era’s Tour’ first leg in Florida.
Meanwhile, Matty deactivated his social media accounts over the weekend, saying, “I perform all the time, and it’s my job, and I love doing this, but I can’t perform off the stage anymore as I just want to be a bloke.”
Just before deactivating, he followed Taylor on Instagram.
3rd – 5th May 2023: “This is about you. You know who you are. I Love You.”
The Sun exclusively revealed that Matty Healy and Taylor Swift are “madly in love” and ready to become public in Nashville, where Taylor performed on the weekend. The Sun claimed that Taylor broke up with Joe back in February (based on this timeline, that is unlikely.), further adding that the breakup was a “birthday present” for Matty as they split up on the same day as his birthday.
On the 3rd of May, Matty spoke to the camera during his song ‘About You’, “This is about you, you know who you are. I love you” at his show in the Phillippines. Then the day after, Matty performs “She’s American” by introducing it saying “she sure is” in reference to Taylor.
5th May—During her show in Nashville, Taylor spoke the same words to the camera during her song ‘Cardigan’ in her Folklore era, all with Matty in attendance.
5th – 7th May 2023: The Eras Tour
Matty flew 20 hours from Manilla where he was performing with his band, The 1975 to Nashville to attend Taylor’s Eras tour shows. He also performed with the support act and good friend Phoebe Bridgers before Taylor took to the stage.
Matty was spotted in the VIP tent both evenings, standing with Phoebe Bridgers, fellow support act Gracie Abrams and Taylor’s model friends Gigi Hadid and Lily Aldridge.
Fans recorded Matty singing along to ‘Lover’, where fans believe he is replacing the words with “Taylor, you’re my, my, my lover.” Additionally, he danced along to ‘Shake It Off’.
The last show Matty was in attendance for gave us the infamous ‘Fearless Gaze’. The pair couldn’t keep their eyes off each other which sparked the dating rumours even further. I mean, if Taylor Swift looked at you like that, you would fall in love too, wouldn’t you?
After the concert ended, they were spotted driving to Taylor’s Nashville apartment.
16th May 2023: The pair are photographed in New York together
Following the Eras Tour appearances, the pair were pictured leaving the Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village.
They were also accompanied by other celebrities, such as producer Jack Antonoff and his wife Margaret Qualley, Kendrick Lamar (who has collaborated with Swift in the past), and Florence Welch.
Matty was spotted arriving and leaving with an oddly shaped Louis Vitton bag, which fans now suspect has a typewriter inside due to Taylor’s new song ‘The Tortured Poets Department’, of her new album ‘The Tortured Poets Department.’ The lyrics are “You left your typewriter at my apartment.”
5th June 2023: Reports that Taylor and Matty had broken up
After a month, it was reported by multiple news outlets that the pair had split.
A source had told People magazine that, “She had fun with him, but it was always casual,” a source told the magazine. “They are no longer romantically involved.”
7th June 2023: Matty’s public apology
27th October 2023: Taylor releases 1989 (Taylor’s Version)
The original version of 1989 was written and released around the same time Matty and Taylor met. Taylor produced five new tracks which were written originally for the 2014 release but cut from the album.
“Slut!” is one of the vault tracks with Taylor, Jack Antonoff and Patrik Berger as writers and co-producers. Swift is the only performer on the track. However, some fans received vinyl orders of the album that listed Healy as another co-writer.
The original song was meant to feature The 1975, but fans believe that it got scrapped after Taylor and Matty’s summer romance.
19th April 2024: The Tortured Poets Department release
Taylor’s 11th studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department” was heavily anticipated to be a breakup album. Although fans expected the songs to reference her six-year relationship with ex-boyfriend Joe Alywn. But most of the lyrics seem to reference Matty instead.
Songs like “The Tortured Poets Department”, “But Daddy I Love Him”, “Down Bad”, “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)”, “Fresh Out The Slammer”, “Guilty As Sin” and “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” all tie back to Matty and their relationship it seems.
Taylor sings on the track, “The Tortured Poets Department.” She sings lyrics “Like a tattoed golden retriever” about Matty, which fans have picked out as Taylor’s ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn did not have tattoos. Further on in the song, she sings, “But you told Lucy you’d kill yourself if I ever leave. And I had said that to Jack about you so I felt seen.” Matty is close friends with Boygenius star Lucy Dacus and Taylor is close friends with producer Jack Antonoff.
“The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” is where fans knew this album was about Matty. The song unpacked another heartbreak anthem for Swifties to scream, whilst Taylor sings about her sudden breakup with Matty. “You kicked out the stage lights but you’re still performing” and accuses him of “rusting my sparkling summer.”
24th April 2024: Matty’s response to The Tortured Poets Department
Matty was approached on the street by paparazzi asking about his “disstrack”, his response being “I haven’t really listened to it, but im sure its good!” Respectful response!
9th-11th May 2024: The Tortured Poets Department Era perfomance
Taylor returned to the stage for her Europe leg of The Eras Tour where she surprised fans with a set from the new album. To some dismay, she removed fan favourites and mashed the sister albums ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’ together to make space for The Tortured Poets Department on the setlist.
Her stage presence mimicked a similar stage presence to Matty as she marched along the stage to the bridge of “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived”, similar to what Matty does to The 1975 song “Love It If We Made It.”
Right at the end of the song, she pretends to be dead and then her dancers come and carry her across the stage for the start of her song “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart.” This is very similar to what Matty did in one of his performances from The 1975’s “At Their Very Best Tour.”
