Taylor Swift Felt ‘Lonely’ Writing Album With Ex Joe Alwyn

Taylor Swift admits she felt “lonely” while writing one of her most critically acclaimed albums during her relationship with ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn.

Before performing her song “Betty” during her Eras Tour stop in Melbourne, Australia, on Saturday (Feb. 17), Swift reflected on how she felt lonely and isolated while writing her 2020 album Folklore during the COVID-19 lockdown, even though she was in a relationship.

At the time, Swift was in quarantine at home with her ex-boyfriend Alwyn, who contributed creatively to the project on songs such as “Betty” and “Exile.”

“[I was] imagining that, instead of being a lonely millennial woman covered in cat hair drinking my weight in white wine, I was a ghostly Victorian lady wandering through the woods with a candle in a candlestick holder,” Swift said onstage, according to Page Six.

“And I wrote only on parchment with a feathered quill. That was in my mind, what I thought I looked like writing Folklore. So that’s all that matters — the delusion,” the pop star added.

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Last spring, Swift and Alwyn broke up after six years of dating. The pair were first linked back in 2016.

Their split was not reported until April 8, 2023, “a few weeks” after the former couple’s actual breakup, according to reports.

In 2021, the Boy Erased actor, who reportedly inspired Swift’s fan-favorite Midnights track “Lavender Haze,” earned a Grammy for helping co-produce Swift’s Folklore album, which took home the award for Album of the Year.

According to Billboard, Alwyn co-produced six songs on the album, including “Exile,” “Betty,” “My Tears Ricochet,” “August,” “This Is Me Trying” and “Illicit Affairs.”