Taylor Swift’s love story with British actor Joe Alwyn ended about two years ago, before the singer moved on to her very public romance with NFL star Travis Kelce. Alwyn and Swift’s close longtime friend Selena Gomez, however, showed at last night’s Oscars that they aren’t all that close themselves. Gomez and Alwyn managed to avoid each other the entire night, including at the Vanity Fair Oscar party they both attended.
Both Alwyn and Gomez were presenters at the Academy Awards. Alwyn presented Best Cinematography with a group of actors, including Gomez’s Emilia Pérez co-star Zoe Saldaña. Gomez presented Best Documentary with Samuel L. Jackson.
News of Alwyn and Swift’s breakup came out in April 2023. The couple had been together for six years.
On April 10, 2023, a source told People that Swift and Alwyn originally “had plenty in common and fell in love in a safe bubble while she was retreating from the world during Reputation. Then the pandemic hit, and they were locked down together and able to continue growing their relationship in this insulated way. But he didn’t really ‘know’ her yet outside of that bubble.”
Following the pandemic, Alwyn “struggled with Taylor’s level of fame and the attention from the public,” the source said. “The differences in their personalities have also become harder to ignore after years together. They’ve grown apart.”
This January, Alwyn spoke to The Guardian about how he had put his past with Swift behind him. Moving on from that era is “something for other people to do,” Alwyn explained. “We’re talking about something that’s a while ago now in my life. So that’s for other people. That’s what I feel.”
He was asked if he was afraid that his past relationship with Swift would always influence the public’s view of him, He replied, “I have tried just to focus on controlling what I can control. And, right from the beginning, tried to focus on the things that are meaningful for me: friends, family, work, of course. So noise outside of that, I think I’ve done what lots of people who find themselves in the public eye do, which is just try and ignore it. If you don’t, and if you let all of that other stuff in, and if it starts to affect you and your behavior, you’re living from the outside in. And then you’re pretty fucked.”
He said that these days, “I feel lucky to be in a good place.”
