Taylor Swift didn’t have any Instagram photos with Joe Alwyn to delete after their breakup last month since they never posted pics of each other, but she did do the closest thing she could: She took down her video explaining the meaning of “Lavender Haze”—and how it was about her being so in love with Alwyn. Taylor Swift fans on Twitter noticed the silent but brutal move, along with Swift removing her link to the “Lavender Haze” music video from her bio:
Swift didn’t often talk about her six-year romance with Alwyn, so it was one of the very rare times on record that she discussed their dynamic and what their love story was like on the inside.
She shared the Instagram video, originally viewable here, in October. She said in it, “I happened upon the phrase ‘lavender haze’ when I was watching Mad Men. I looked it up because I thought it sounded cool. And it turns out that it’s a common phrase used in the ’50s where they would describe being in love. If you’re in the ‘lavender haze,’ then that meant you were in that all-encompassing love glow. And I thought that was really beautiful.”
Then she got into her dynamic with Alwyn: “I guess, theoretically, when you’re in the ‘lavender haze,’ you’ll do anything to stay there. And not let people bring you down off of that cloud. I think that a lot of people have to deal with this now, not just like ‘public figures,’ because we live in the era of social media, and if the world finds out if you’re in love with somebody they’re going to weigh in on it. Like my relationship for six years we’ve had to dodge weird rumors, tabloid stuff, and we just ignore it. So this song is about the act of ignoring that stuff to protect the real stuff.”
Swift hasn’t really spoken about the breakup herself, although her friends got Swiftie attention when they all unfollowed Alwyn around the same time. A source told Us Weekly on April 20 that Swift is looking ahead. “Taylor is handling the breakup really well and she’s feeling very optimistic about her future,” the source said. “She truly believes whatever is meant to be, will be, and knows everything happens for a reason.”
A separate source told People on April 10 that Swift and Alwyn’s romance was rockier than it looked from the outside. “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 outlet’s source said. “Ultimately, [they] weren’t the right fit for one another.”
Senior News and Strategy Editor
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she’s not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.