Matt Healy apparently made a joke about his former flame Taylor Swift when he referred to his “casual romantic liaisons” in a recent interview and explained why he doesn’t write about heartbreak and his past relationships anymore.
Matty, 35, and Taylor, 34, dated very briefly last year but split in June 2023, and she appeared to reference their short-lived romance on her latest album The Tortured Poets Department, which was released in April this year.
It is widely believed that Taylor took aim at the 1975 frontman in her song The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, but Matty has now claimed that writing about past romances is such an ‘obvious thing to draw from’.
During an appearance on Joshua Citarella’s podcast DoomscrollMatty spoke about his process of making music and what he likes to write about, saying: “Last year I became a much more well-known public figure for a lot of different reasons. The only reason I was interested in is what I was doing.
“So I think a lot of artists become very interested in their knowledge, or they become interested in the things that have happened outside of their art that people know about, and they want to address that, and fair enough.”
Matty Healy apparently made a joke about Taylor Swift this week when he appeared on the Doomscroll podcast
Taylor and Matt, pictured here with Nick Grimshaw in 2015, briefly dated in 2023
Referring to his band The 1975, he continued: “Maybe on my first record, when it was very much a series of diary entries, like little bits of heartbreak, I wrote a lot more about relationships and things like that.
“But honestly, I’d just be lying if I made a record about, I don’t know, all the things that have been said about me or my casual romantic liaisons or whatever it is that I’ve become somewhat famous for. just because I was famous,” he said.
“I think that’s an obvious thing to draw on, and I’m just not interested in it. And I think maintaining the status quo is something I always like to fight against,” he added.
“So the idea of making a record about something that happened to me personally, and by the time I release it will be about two years old, I see people doing that too, and it’s not interesting.”
Meanwhile, Taylor is known for writing songs about her former lovers, including John Mayer, One Direction star Harry Styles and Twilight actor Taylor Lautner.
Following the release of The Tortured Poet’s Department, a source told Us Weekly that Matty’s reaction to the alleged song about him was positive, and that people close to him “couldn’t be happier” with how the record turned out.
A source said: ‘Matty still thinks highly of Taylor, but we were all nervous about what she might have said on the album.
“Matty’s family was afraid Taylor would tear him apart. Matty has struggled with life in the public eye, and he’s doing really well, but the last thing he needs is every Swiftie in the world thinking he’s a bad guy.”
Taylor, pictured here on October 18, is known for writing songs about her ex-boyfriends
Another insider told the publication, “He was concerned that their story would be portrayed in a negative light,” but was “very grateful for the heads-up” he received from Taylor.
However, it doesn’t seem like Matty has been paying much attention to the record overall, as when asked by an Entertainment Tonight reporter in April what he thought of the “diss track,” he politely replied, “I haven’t really listened. so much of it, but I’m sure it’s good.’
The lyrics in The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived refer to a man in a “Jehovah’s Witness suit” and “rusting my (Swift’s) sparkling summer.” Matty is known for wearing striking black suits during live performances and the couple reportedly split in June 2023.
