If there’s one thing that garners more attention than Taylor Swift, it’s her ex’s. He split from the Eras Tour icon over two years ago, with Taylor now engaged to NFL star Travis Kelce. But for Joe Alwyn, the Life of a Showgirl star is a ghost from his past he simply can’t shake. When Taylor announced her engagement earlier this week, her rare diamond ring wasn’t the only thing trending. Google searches on her ex’s boomed, with Joe Alwyn at the forefront.
The 34-year-old actor was in a relationship with the Grammy-winning musician for around six years, often photographed with the star outside restaurants and premieres as they rushed to their car with as little attention as possible. It’s a stark contrast to Swift’s current relationship, striding side by side with her NFL player beau and peppering in some PDA.
As Traylor announced their engagement, TikTok videos also surfaced of Joe appearing to leave a hotel with someone fans say is his ‘new girlfriend.’ The person at hand – who some have argued bears a striking similarity to Taylor – is model Aurelia Knauss, a woman with almost no presence on social media.
‘Your new girl is my clone,’ joked one Swiftie in the comments of the video, referencing Taylor’s song ‘Is It Over Now?’ ‘I thought he hated fame?’ questioned another, ‘but I guess he only hated it when he was the less famous one.’
For Joe, this must be getting old.
©Jackson Lee/GC Images
Joe was recently pictured for the first time following Traylor’s engagement announcement, wearing a blue stripy jumper and a hat. Predictably, headlines were quick to dub him ‘weary,’ ‘downcast’ and ‘quite literally blue.’ It’s worth noting that, in the best way possible, this always has been Joe Alwyn. The notoriously private actor’s brand simply is resigned, brooding and quiet, hardly one to grin and wave at flashing cameras in the street.
Over the course of their relationship, Joe and Taylor created their own kind of media frenzy. The Brutalist actor collaborated on music with Taylor during lockdown, with the pair also fuelling their own engagement speculation. When asked outright, Joe once elusively said, ‘If I had a pound for every time I’ve been told I’ve been engaged, then I’d have a lot of pound coins. If the answer was yes, I wouldn’t say, and if the answer was no, I wouldn’t say.’
Despite declarations of love in her songs – ‘I’d marry you in paper rings’ and ‘Can I go where you go forever and ever’ gushing lyrics read – the pair announced their split in 2023. At the time, a source told People magazine that Joe had struggled with Taylor’s return to the mainstream as a pop superstar amid her record-breaking Eras Tour, which had kicked off a month earlier.
As her blossoming relationship with Travis Kelce unfolded for the world to see, Taylor hinted at her previously private life with Joe in a rare interview. ‘Me locking myself away in a house for a lot of years – I’ll never get that time back,’ she said.
Before Swifties go too hard on Joe, it’s worth noting that for a while he was exactly what Taylor needed. Following her lowest point in 2016, she described on Reputation how Joe – with his disregard for pop culture and rejection of gossip – gave Taylor an escape, when most of Hollywood turned their backs. Because of him, Swifties have been given some of the star’s most loved songs – from ‘Lover’ and ‘London Boy’ to ‘So Long, London’ and ‘You’re Losing Me.’
A true ‘tortured poet’, the actor has always longed for a life away from the spotlight. The fact his approach to fame didn’t align with Taylor’s as the years ticked by isn’t something he should be punished for. People change and priorities shift, even for celebrities.
It can’t be easy seeing your ex – who may just be the most popular woman on the planet – getting engaged, let alone having hordes of people video, photograph, and comment on your life. Taylor’s closed the chapter and moved on. It’s about time we let Joe Alwyn do the same.
Charlotte Roberts is a news and entertainment writer at Grazia UK. She spends her days covering everything celebrity, culture, and entertainment.
