Even though Taylor Swift carried on seemingly effortlessly with her Eras tour immediately after letting her breakup news slip, fans were still shook. Guessing that Taylor split from Joe Alwyn long before the tour began, fans praised the singer for keeping her composure as she continued to sing almost all of her famous tracks—love songs and breakup ballads included.
While Taylor might be reluctant to publicly acknowledge the breakup, fans are watching her every move super-closely for signs that Joe did wrong by the songstress. After all, the two were together a long time, and many fans expected the relationship to end with marriage. So when some of Taylor's friends unfollowed Joe Alwyn on social media, rumors began swirling. Is there more to it than Taylor's friends simply moving on?
Many Of Taylor's Friends Followed Joe On Social Media
Super fans often keep an eye on their favorite celebrities' posses to figure out what's happening where. When it comes to Taylor, Swifties have long followed not only the singer herself but all of her famous friends too, including Selena Gomez, Gigi Hadid, Karlie Kloss, Blake Lively, and many more.
Many of those friends apparently decided to follow Joe Alwyn on social media. It's entirely possible that they began following him after meeting him thanks to Taylor.
The way that Taylor is known for keeping her friends close, it only makes sense that they all knew and, hopefully, liked Joe.
As soon as the breakup news broke, however, fans began to notice that Taylor's friends seemed to be distancing themselves from Joe.
Gigi Hadid (And Others) Have Unfollowed Joe Alwyn
Fans flocked to Reddit to discuss new developments in Taylor's breakup. And since Taylor herself hadn't spoken out, they took it upon themselves to read into every single detail to determine what might be quietly going on.
Of course, many fans assume that Joe did something to Taylor, specifically that he cheated on her with a co-star. There is very little to go off of, but many fans simply can't believe that Joe would have broken up with Taylor. Given how Taylor's PR team seems to be working so hard on maintaining her image (her past breakups have impacted her reputation), some believe there's got to be more to the story.
But even if Taylor did have a run-of-the-mill 'this isn't working out' breakup from Joe, her friends have clearly taken her side, with many unfollowing Joe on Instagram.
It's unclear the exact timelines, as people were only examining follower lists after the fact, but fans are convinced that Gigi Hadid was only the last of Taylor's girl squad to unfollow Joe.
The theory is this: within 24 hours after Taylor was spotted on a "pap walk" (in her little black dress with her group friends), most of those friends unfollowed Joe very quietly on social media. Whether it's because Taylor asked them to or they were simply 'done' with Alwyn is up for debate, and debate fans did on Reddit.
Some theorized that after talking to Swift in person, post-PR announcement, her friends all decided to unfollow Joe—possibly even during their night out. After all, average folks do it all the time when a girl breaks up with her boyfriend.
And yet, because it's Taylor Swift, fans couldn't help but read into things.
Many Say Taylor Swift Is Scheming Behind The Scenes
Plenty of fans argued that Taylor's friends are probably supporting her in the only way they know how, and that's by prioritizing their friendship and kicking Joe and his Instagram to the curb. Maybe her friends only followed him as a courtesy, some guessed, because many of Swift's squad probably wouldn't have crossed paths with Alwyn had he not dated their BFF.
Some fans had other thoughts though, and read heavily into the behavior and the fact that there's no way Taylor is oblivious to the fact that she's trained her fans to look for Easter eggs and read into everything.
One commenter summed up hundreds of other fans' thoughts by writing, "I think our personal social media habits around our own relationships are irrelevant here. This is Taylor Swift, ninja PR queen. Nothing is normal, and nothing is accidental. This is all coordinated and we just don't know why yet."
Believing this, and that Taylor knows exactly what she's doing (even if she's doing very subtle things like 'belting out' 'You're Not Sorry' a few weeks after the breakup news), many commenters were a bit worried about Joe's wellbeing—and his reputation, even though he hasn't seemed to unfollow Taylor (yet?).
One fan argued, "Taylor knows her recent actions will have people questioning whether Joe hurt her and even assume he did. None of what she does is by accident." Which isn't entirely fair, suggested many replies, because Swifties hate many of Taylor's exes with a vengeance.
The only question to them at this point is did Joe Alwyn actually hurt Taylor, or is she playing around with the dynamic knowing she has all the power?
