An old interview in which Matty Healy said that dating Taylor Swift would be “emasculating” has resurfaced amid reports that he is in a relationship with the “Anti-Hero” singer.
Back in 2016, when asked if he was afraid of losing himself in a relationship, The 1975 rocker reportedly said, “Yeah, Absolutely.”
“And the reason I mention that is because if I had gone out with Taylor Swift I would’ve been, ‘F–king hell! I am NOT being Taylor Swift’s boyfriend.’ You know, ‘F–K. THAT,’” he said, per The Mirror.
“That’s also a man thing, a de-masculinating, emasculating thing.”
In 2014, rumors were swirling that he and Swift were together. He fueled the fire by wearing a T-shirt from her merchandise line.
But Healy, 34, claimed that his entanglement with Swift, 33, was nothing more than a “flirtation.”
“I don’t do anything else, right, so it doesn’t leave a lot of room for me going out, or shagging someone,” he told Q at the time. “So the one time I did have a flirtation with a girl it ends up going everywhere…. I mean, I got on E! News and people were like, ‘Who’s Matt Healy?’ so that was cool.”
While he seemed to like the attention he received during the swift romance, Healy admitted he “didn’t make a big deal out of it.”
“It’s not really anything to talk about, because if she wasn’t Taylor Swift we wouldn’t be talking about her,” he had said. “She wasn’t a big impact on my life. It’s just interesting to me how interested the world is about Taylor Swift.”
The “about You” artist immediately faced backlash for his comments and was quick to defend himself in a series of tweets.
“Now I may admit to being an idiot on occasion, but I am not a misogynist,” he tweeted (via Yahoo! News) at the time. “This suggestion makes me really sad.”
He added: “I was for a very short time immersed in a celebrity world that I found confusing and scary. At that time, I had fears of being ‘somebody’s boyfriend’ (remember this is all speculation as we never dated!) before even being recognized for my music or presence as a person in my own right.”
Healy noted that he was being “honest” about his feelings about what comes when people “assume” you are dating “the most famous woman on the planet.”
“Now if you want to talk about Taylor Swift, that is easy…. Since she came to my show in December of 2014, I would say that 90 perfect of journalists that have interviewed me have asked about either her as a person or what our ‘interaction’ was like,” he recalled.
“I have said on countless occasions that I found her to be one of the most gracious, hard working, creatively gifted, and beautiful women that I have had the pleasure to meet. I personally have a lot of respect and admiration for her. Why would I not?
He claimed that he “didn’t even date” Swift and that the media had made the whole thing into a bigger story than it was.
“The media’s incessant and brutal obsession with her has meant that even a guy who DIDN’T DATE HER has been so battered by their never-ending questions that he’s inevitably said something that can be lifted and molded into something that resembles ‘shade’. It’s really sad.”
Nearly a decade later, it seems Healy has had to shake off any feelings of emasculation once again as he is now linked to the Grammy-winning artist.
This week, reports surfaced that Healy is dating Swift following her breakup with long-term boyfriend Joe Alwyn.
Sources claimed to The Sun that the duo have only been dating for less than two months but are already “madly in love.”
“It’s super-early days, but it feels right,” the insider claimed, adding, “They first dated, very briefly, almost 10 years ago but the timings just didn’t work out.”
The insider alleged that Swift and Alwyn broke up in February so there was “absolutely no crossover.”
The outlet also claimed that Swift and Healy are reportedly going to take their relationship public this weekend at Swift’s upcoming Era’s Tour show in Nashville.
“Both Matty and Taylor have been touring over the past few weeks, so it’s been a lot of FaceTiming and texting but she cannot wait to see him again,” the insider said.
While Swift and Alwyn notoriously kept their relationship private, she and Healy allegedly want to share their love with the world.
The pair “wants to ‘own’ this romance, and not hide it away,” the source said.
An anonymous tipster told gossip site Deuxmoi that the pop star and rocker were set up by Swift’s frequent collaborator, Jack Antonoff.
“This comes from another celebrity who messaged me last weekend and said ‘I had to tell you, I just heard that Tay Swift is already dating the lead singer of The 1975. Antonoff set it up,’” Deuxmoi shared.
The chatter of Healy’s relationship rumors comes after speculation circulated that Swift was seeing F1 driver Fernando Alonso.
Swift dated Alwyn, 32, for six years and sparked engagement rumors numerous times before news broke last month that they were officially over.
Theories have since been spreading that the “Favourite” actor has already moved on and is dating actress Emma Laird, 24.
Meanwhile, Healy split from FKA Twigs, 35, in June 2022 after three years of dating and was also recently linked to 24-year-old model Charlotte Briar d’Alessio.
