Breaking News: Joe Alwyn Wanted to Keep His Relationship with Taylor Swift ‘Personal’ During 6-Year Romance

Joe Alwyn was thrust into the spotlight when he started dating Taylor Swift back in 2016.

The couple’s breakup was confirmed by PEOPLE in April 2023, and a year on from their split an Alwyn source tells PEOPLE that the British actor, 33, intentionally kept his relationship with the pop superstar — who just released her latest album The Tortured Poets Department — out of the public eye.

When friends learned he was dating Swift, 34, “[the relationship] took a lot of people by surprise,” says the source, adding, “but he wasn’t showing off in some way.”

Despite the intense public interest in the relationship, Alwyn wanted the romance to remain “his own personal story,” says the source.

On her latest body of work, Swift sings about feeling caged and lonely amid a failing romance. “I stopped trying to make him laugh / Stopped trying to drill the safe,” she details on “So Long, London,” which appears to have been inspired by her breakup with Alwyn. “And I’m pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free.”

And on “Fresh Out the Slammer,” the pop star further shares how isolated she felt: “Another summer taking cover / Rolling thunder, he don’t understand me / Splintered back in winter / Silent dinner, bitter he was with her in dreams.”

During their six-year romance, Alwyn and Swift both remained very private about their relationship, often deflecting about engagement rumors.

“If I had a pound for every time I think I’ve been told I’ve been engaged, then I’d have a lot of pound coins,” the Conversations with Friends star told WSJ. Magazine in April 2022.