Joe Alwyn has crossed the Swifty Rubicon. In one simple remark, he has sent a clear message to the singer’s one-billion-person fandom that it’s time to move on.

In a recent interview with The Guardian, Alwyn, who dated Taylor Swift for six and a half years between 2016 and 2023, was asked if he wants to move on from the whole saga. Let’s be honest, being Swift’s most recent ex does not exactly permit a low profile.

In fact, she wrote an entire album about their breakup and its name, The Tortured Poets Department, is rumoured to be a play on the WhatsApp group he shared with Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott called The Tortured Man Club.

‘That’s something for other people to do,’ the actor offered back. ‘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.’

Alwyn and Swift reportedly met at the Met Gala in May 2016 and started dating later that year. They were notorious for keeping most details about their relationship private – a stark contrast to Swift’s current relationship with the Kansas City Chiefs player, Travis Kelce.

For a while, dating the biggest pop star in the world probably had its perks. Swift wrote her song ‘Gorgeous’ about Alwyn, moved to London and wrote ‘London Boy’ about him, and he has writing credits on her albums Folklore and Evermore – plus a subsequent Grammy.

Looking back on their relationship, the little we saw of it, it’s hard to imagine that they managed to withstand six and a half years in the laser focus of the public eye, as well as a pandemic, without still having remaining love or respect for each other.

The trouble for Alwyn is that when Swift breaks up with someone, so does her army of supporters. These fans are not to be underestimated. They have caused seismic activity at her concerts, dubbed ‘Swift-quakes’; they buy multiple versions of the same album and stream her 10-minute songs to ensure she’s Spotify’s number one artist of the year. Her political leaning is of such importance that president-elect Donald Trump bothered to feign her AI-generated endorsement in the run up to the recent US election. And her resulting endorsement of Kamala Harris made international news.

What is it like then being on the wrong side of that tour de force? That’s something Alwyn knows all too well, if you’ll pardon the pun. He’s been subject to endless online commentary and is consistently asked about is his ex.

While neither Alwyn nor Swift have publicly confirmed why they broke up, rumours first circulated in March 2023 when Swift embarked on the first leg of her record-breaking Eras Tour. The following month, a source confirmed to Entertainment Tonight that the couple had ended things. ‘It was not dramatic,’ the insider explained. ‘The relationship had just run its course. It’s why [Alwyn] hasn’t been spotted at any shows.’

Then came the break-up album from Swift – tracks, ‘So Long, London’, ‘Fresh Out the Slammer’, ‘I Can Do It with a Broken Heart’ and ‘The Black Dog’ are all thought to be about Alwyn.

In ‘So Long, London’, the singer implies that the relationship fell apart due to ‘quiet resentment’. She sings: ‘And you say I abandoned the ship/ But I was going down with it/ My white-knuckle dyin’ grip/ Holding tight to your quiet resentment/ And my friends said it isn’t right to be scared/ Every day of a love affair/ Every breath feels like rarest air/ When you’re not sure if he wants to be there.’

Listening to the album, which sold 2.6 million copies in its first week, Swifties were bound to form opinions about Alwyn. One quick glance of his name on social media and it’s clear that certain corners of the fan base are not over it. ‘Can Joe Alwyn stans leave Taylor alone?’ asks one post. ‘He bored her to death and they broke up – end of story.’ ‘Joe Alwyn’s entire career is him appearing in awards bait movies and then not getting nominated for any awards,’ reads another. A third X user wrote, ‘It’s so funny when people say the public owes Joe Alwyn an apology like the public knew who he was in the first place.’

It’s safe to say he is not out of the woods just yet, especially on social media, but Alwyn is keen to move on. He is currently promoting the Oscar-tipped film, The Brutalist, in which he stars alongside Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones. The film that already won Best Picture at the Golden Globes. Looking ahead in 2025, Alwyn has two other major projects on the horizon. The first is the adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet, starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley, and the second is Hamlet, where he plays Laertes opposite Riz Ahmed’s Dane.

Other than that, Alwyn insists he would love to restore a degree of relative anonymity off screen. ‘You have to dupe yourself,’ he told The Guardian. ‘You have to fight away things in order to hold on to what is essentially a childlike playfulness. Bat away the industry of it. Or cynicism or self-consciousness, in order to put yourself in a place where you are willing to run around like a kid and pretend that you’re someone you’re not for a few months, which sounds very sane…’

Whether that sort of innocence is possible in such bright limelight – who knows. What’s clear is that both Swift and Alwyn have moved on, it’s about time their fans did too.