Many Taylor Swift fans were shocked by the news of her breakup with longtime beau Joe Alwyn in spring 2023 — and even more surprised to learn she had moved on with The 1975’s Matty Healy.
Though the British singer has been making headlines for years, it has often been for the wrong reasons.
Known for kissing fans and his carefree attitude, Healy has found himself in hot water on numerous different occasions.
Scroll through for a breakdown of the singer’s most controversial moments.
Kissing fans
Healy has become known for his daring acts on stage during concerts — including his love for kissing fans.
The 1975 frontman often brings one lucky fan on stage — no matter their sex — and makes out with them in front of the crowd.
During one concert, the “Robbers” singer took things a step further by sucking on a woman’s fingers, sparking a debate online.
However, he ditched the tradition in January 2023 after Swift attended one of his shows.
“I’m not kissing anybody in front of Taylor Swift, have some respect. In front of the queen, it’s not happening,” Healy told the crowd at the time.
Eating raw meat
Healy caused an uproar in November 2022 after eating a raw steak while touching himself on stage at Madison Square Garden.
During the show, the shirtless singer got down on his knees while chomping on the meat in between songs.
“I’m sorry if you came with your dad and I was touching my d—k. It’s your fault for bringing your dad,” he told the audience.
It appears Healy enjoyed his uncooked snack as he did the same bit at another show a few months later.
Commentary on Kanye West’s anti-Semitism
Amid backlash over Kanye West’s anti-Semitic comments, Healy was accused of doing the Nazi salute while marching on stage during a performance of “Love It If We Made It.”
The song specifically calls out West by name, which is when the alleged salute happened.
While many fans called the move satire and argued that Healy was actually calling out Nazis rather than supporting them, others slammed the singer for making the gesture in the first place.
Though Healy has yet to address the incident, he did condemn the “Donda” rapper on the “Adam Friedland Show” in February 2023.
“He’s obviously someone who is dealing with grief and has mental health issues, but that’s not an excuse to do, like, anti-Semitism,” he said, noting that while he loves “blurring of boundaries,” he thinks West was out of line.
Making fun of rapper Ice Spice
On that same podcast, hosts Adam Friedland and Nick Mullen made a slew of racist remarks about rapper Ice Spice as Healy sat idly by.
During the episode, the “Somebody Else” musician laughed as the podcast hosts mimicked Chinese accents and called Ice Spice an “Inuit Spice Girl” and a “chubby Chinese lady.” At one point, the singer even encouraged the hosts to impersonate Japanese people working in concentration camps.
The podcast episode was so offensive, many platforms such as Spotify took it down, prompting Healy to later apologize to the “Princess Diana” emcee.
“I just feel a bit bad, and I’m kind of a bit sorry if I’ve offended you. Ice Spice, I’m sorry,” he said during a concert. “It’s not because I’m annoyed that me joking got misconstrued. It’s because I don’t want Ice Spice to think I’m a d—k. I love you, Ice Spice. I’m so sorry.”
In a September 2023 interview with PvNew, Ice Spice addressed Healy’s comments about her, saying that she was “so confused” after she heard the podcast.
“I heard ‘chubby Chinese lady’ or some s–t like that, and I’m like, ‘Huh? What does that even mean?’ First of all, I’m thick. What do you mean Chinese? What?”
However, the “Deli” rapper said Healy apologized to her “a bunch of times” when she ran into him at a Jean Paul Gaultier party.
Porn confession
As if that wasn’t enough, Healy also made a jarring confession about his porn preferences during the disturbing podcast episode.
The singer recalled a time the two hosts walked in on him watching “hard-core pornography” on “Ghetto Gaggers,” a porn site known for having videos showing the humiliation and brutalization of women of color.
“I was, like, dressed as ‘guy who is jacking off,’ so I had, like, untucked shirt. Like you said, I think it literally was, like, ‘Ghetto Gaggers’ was on the TV,” he explained. “It’s just somebody just getting, like, brutalized. … I’m like, ‘It’s fine, it’s OK.’ Ten minutes would have been fine, but 30 seconds was, like, I was worried that was almost offensive.”
Calling himself a “Messiah”
Although Healy has been an outward critic of religion for most of his career, the singer shocked fans after referring to himself as the “Messiah” on multiple occasions.
In a 2016 interview with the Guardian, the rocker said he was never misquoted, doubling down on the fact that he should be held in high regard.
“There is an element of feeling a bit like the Messiah,” he said. “Well, not somebody who’s here to save humanity, but somebody for whom the world does truly revolve around them.”
Dissing Taylor?
Before Healy and Swift were reportedly “madly in love,” the rocker was appalled by the idea of dating her.
Amid speculation that the pair had dated in 2014, Healy got extremely defensive about their relationship, saying the “Bad Blood” songstress didn’t have a “big impact on my life.”
“It’s just interesting to me how interested the world is about Taylor Swift,” he told Q Magazine at the time.
“The reason I mention that is because if I had [properly] 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.’ That’s also a man thing, a demasculinating [sic], emasculating thing.”
After being blasted for the apparent misogynistic remarks, Healy later backtracked, explaining that he wasn’t trying to “shade” Swift and her love life.
“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,” he tweeted at the time. “I personally have a lot of respect and admiration for her. Why would I not?”
Twitter showdown
In September 2023, Healy tweeted on his burner account: “I told Lucy Dacus that ‘Boygenius’ had inspired me and George to start a new band called ‘Girlr–d’. I don’t really hear from her that often.”
Dacus — who is a member of the indie supergroup Boygenius alongside Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker — savagely replied, “You don’t hear from me at all.”
The British rocker, who was also called out by fans for his ableist comment, subsequently deactivated his account.
