Taylor Swift’s public Matty Healy romance after secretive six years with Joe Alwyn

Her relationships have inspired her countless chart hits and kept her Swifties glued to high-profile hook-ups for a decade.

And with her latest love story, Taylor Swift, 33, has reclaimed her Queen of Romance crown, proudly showing off her shocking 1975 collaboration with frontman Matty Healy, 34.

Over the past month, the American pop princess and the British rocker have publicly revealed their love affair, supporting each other at gigs, parading their PDAs in front of the dads and sharing snaps with the in-laws.

All this is in stark contrast to Taylor’s last relationship, in which she retreated from the spotlight for a secretive six-year romance with actor Joe Alwyn, 32.

When rumors of their relationship circulated last month, sources close to Matty and Taylor revealed that they embraced the public interest in the pairing.

“They are both extremely proud and excited about this relationship and, unlike Taylor’s last relationship – which was deliberately kept out of the limelight – she wants to ‘own’ this romance, not hide it,” an insider revealed.

MailOnline takes a look at how these two very different love stories played out.

How you met the girl

Taylor and Matty have been friends since 2014, first meeting when Taylor attended The 1975 concert with her best friend Selena Gomez.

Even in the early days of their friendship, Matty was happy to talk about their connection publicly, gushing into an ininterview with GQ that he’thought she was one of the most gracious, hard-working, creatively gifted and beautiful women I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.’

While keeping their romance out of the public eye, Taylor and Joe met in a very public setting – the May 2016 MET Gala.

Fans speculated about that first encounter, pointing out that the lyrics to Taylor’s 2017 song Dress spelled out the rules’Flashback to when you met me, your buzz cut and my hair bleached,” which referenced their Met Gala looks.

Shake off the show

Taylor’s decision to keep her relationship with Joe private appears to have stemmed in part from the backlash she received over the public nature of her romance with actor Tom Hiddleston.

Taylor and Tom dated the summer before she met Joe in 2016, shocking fans with them infamous 4th of July weekend where Tom was photographed frolicking in the surf with his lover while wearing an ‘I heart TS’ vest.

While Tom insisted that their relationship was not a ‘showmance’ it was soon reported that Taylor put the brakes on the relationship after regretting how public the early weeks were and getting the impression that Tom liked the spotlight.

At the end of 2016, she moved to Joe and from the beginning the romance was tightly hidden, the singer stated that her relationship with the British twink is “not in question” in the press.

She discussed the decision to keep their romance “private” in her 2020 Netflix documentary Miss Americana, which included rare footage of herself and Joe.

The superstar described “falling in love with someone who had a very wonderfully normal, balanced, grounded life” and they “decided together that we wanted our relationship to be private.”

Welcome to New York’s papaparade

Throughout their six-year relationship, Taylor and Joe never walked the red carpet together.

They both attended a handful of high-profile events, including the 2020 Golden Globes, but chose never to click together.

A source previously told Us Weekly about Taylor and Joe, “Fame played a part in their split. Joe is very shy and didn’t like all the attention that came with dating one of the most popular singers in the world.”

In stark contrast, Taylor and Matty have been photographed a number of times in the past month.

And while it’s still early for a real moment on the red carpet, the pair have turned the New York sidewalk into their own couple’s photo shoot.

Matty’s showman persona and his own experience of fame seem to have rubbed off on Taylor, who was spotted smiling proudly this week as she walked out of a New York recording studio with her beau.

Support act

Taylor collaborated with Joe on a number of songs and welcomed her beau to the songwriting world by allowing him to write lyrics for her 2020 alum, Folklore.

Under the pseudonym ‘William Bowery’, Joe co-wrote two songs for the Grammy Award winning album and three more songs for Folklore’s sister album Evermore.

But while Joe hid behind a pseudonym for his collaboration with Taylor, Matty is much louder and prouder with his support.

The frontman supported the Anti-Hero singer during recent stops on her Eras Tour, which kicked off in March, and has been spotted applauding and spinning in the audience.

And he’s even jumped on stage and opened for Taylor on some of her tour dates.

It’s nice to have a friend

Taylor’s loyal girl team friends Gigi Hadid and Lily Aldridge already approve of Matty, no doubt aided by the fact that he’s actually been part of her friendship circle for years.

Gigi was pictured wrapping her arms around Matty in a warm embrace as they watched the Love Story hitmaker perform recently.

It’s a huge achievement for Matty to get Taylor’s inner circle to his side, as members of her loyal team reportedly stopped following Joe after their split.

Show off their style

Taylor has been showing her love for Matty for years. Shortly after they first met, she was spotted in a 1975 T-shirt, while Matt returned the favor by performing in a 1989 album top.

More recently, Matty wore the same 1989 T-shirt to see his now-girlfriend perform and wore a hat with the name from her 2019 album Lover as she left her NYC apartment.

Meeting with her London Boy’s family

Throughout their romance, Taylor and Joe grew close to each other’s families, with Taylor spending an extended period of time in the UK with Joe and his family during the global pandemic.

But while they kept their family gatherings a secret, Taylor has a very different “mother-in-law” in Matty’s mom Denise Welch, who recently shared a photo of the pair cuddling.

The Loose Women star, 64, beamed widely as she posed for photos of Taylor while backstage at The 1975 gig at London’s O2 in January.

Denise couldn’t wipe the smile off her face as she wrote, “Oh what a night in a sold out 02. So proud I can’t even begin!!”

And Matty has been meeting Taylor’s loved ones, with the Brit spotted alongside the Blank Space singer’s father on recent tour dates.