The official story—as far as Taylor’s publicists have let slip—is that they started dating in October 2016. You know, around the time the world was still recovering from the Kanye/Kim phone call drama and Taylor was, as the lore goes, “hiding” from the universe. But here’s where it gets hilarious: the song “Gorgeous,” which is about meeting someone at a bar, was written in December 2016. That means she met Joe, was instantly smitten, and then had to wait a whole two months before their first kiss? Or maybe she just wrote the song after the first kiss because she’s a romantic who plans her album narratives like a Marvel movie.
The real kicker? The song “Dress” has a line that says, “I don’t want you like a best friend,” which suggests they were already in deep by early 2017. But the public didn’t know anything until May 2017, when the British press snapped photos of them leaving a Nashville recording studio. It was like they suddenly appeared out of thin air, like a pair of very attractive, very secretive ghosts. And everyone online screamed, “Wait, who is THAT tall, quiet man?”
The “Reputation” Era: A Masterclass in Misdirection
Here’s a surprising fact that will blow your mind: most fans think “Reputation” (released November 2017) is all about Joe, but it’s actually not. The album includes songs about the Kimye feud, her breakup with Tom Hiddleston, and yes, the beginning of her romance with Joe. But the timeline gets juicy because Joe’s songs on that album—like “Delicate” and “Call It What You Want”—were written in early 2017, when they were already a couple. That means Taylor was writing love songs about a guy she’d been dating for six months before the album dropped, but she was still pretending to the world that she was single. Classic Taylor: making us solve puzzles while she eats popcorn and laughs.
Wait, it gets even weirder. The Met Gala in May 2016? Joe was there, Taylor was there, and they posed in the same group photo. Some fans swear they saw “the look” in that photo, but honestly, it’s like trying to read a book written in invisible ink. Did they meet that night? Did they swap numbers? No one knows—and Taylor’s not telling. She’s probably laughing at the conspiracy theories from her private jet.
