It’s been over one month since Taylor Swift released her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, which many fans think was partially inspired by Matty Healy.
The 1975 frontman, 35, has mixed feelings about the record, a friend of his reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly.
“He loves the attention it’s brought to him, [but] he also thinks it’s hilarious because at no time [were they] ever serious,” the friend claims.
Healy’s pal adds that the musician was “completely blindsided” by TTPD’s “lyrical content,” especially Swift’s allusions to her and a love interest discussing marriage and children.
“For her to be saying things about baby carriages … and living together — he says it had never even come up,” the friend says. “He’s taking it in stride.”
Swift, 34, sings about unfulfilled promises of domestic bliss on several TTPD songs.
“You s–t-talked me under the table, talking rings and talking cradles,” she sings on “Loml.”
On “The Manuscript,” which is seemingly about a relationship with an older man, Swift sings, “He said that if the sex was half as good as the conversation was, soon they’d be pushing strollers / But soon it was over.”
In the title track, Swift recalls someone taking a ring off her middle finger and placing it back on “the one people put wedding rings on.”
While Swift is not one to confirm or deny who her songs are about, her fans have found lyrical clues suggesting that several TTPD songs are about her whirlwind 2023 romance with Healy on the heels of her split from Joe Alwyn. (Swift and Healy were first linked in 2014 but didn’t confirm the romance rumors at the time.)
“Was any of it true? Gazing at me starry-eyed in your Jehovah’s Witness suit,” Swift sings on “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” seemingly taking aim at the suit and tie Healy often performs in.
Swift also recalls public backlash to a relationship on TTPD, seemingly clapping back at those who criticized her for dating Healy after he made problematic comments about Ice Spice. (Ice Spice, 24, later told Billboard that Healy had apologized “a bunch of times” for his remarks.)
“God save the most judgmental creeps who say they want what’s best for me / Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I’ll never see / Thinking they can change the beat of my heart when he touches me and counteract the chemistry,” she sings on “But Daddy I Love Him.”
Healy, for his part, gave fans a brief insight into his thoughts on the album in April when he was stopped by a reporter and asked, “How would you rate your Taylor diss track compared to the 30 others?”
Healy began to laugh in the video obtained by Entertainment Tonight and replied, “I haven’t really listened to that much of it but I’m sure it’s good.”
Despite appearing unfazed by the album, a source exclusively told Us last month that Healy is “uncomfortable with the renewed attention on his relationship [with Taylor] — especially because he’s [with someone] new.”
Healy has been dating model Gabbriette Bechtel since September 2023. He and Swift called off their brief romance that June.
For more on Healy and Swift, watch the video above and pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now.
