Joe Alwyn Responds to Taylor Swift Engagement Rumors

04/21/2022 11:44 pm EDT

Joe Alwyn and Taylor Swift rarely comment on their relationship, but recently Alwyn, 31, opened up about engagement rumors in a new interview with The Wall Street Journal. "If I had a pound for every time I think I've been told I've been engaged, then I'd have a lot of pound coins," Alwyn told WSJ. "I mean, the truth is, if the answer was yes, I wouldn't say, and if the answer was no, I wouldn't say." 

Despite his evasiveness regarding rumors, the British actor was unambiguous about why he maintains a private personal life. "We live in a culture that people expect so much to be given," he shared. "So that if you're not posting all the time about what you're doing, how you're spending a day or how you made a breakfast, does that make you a recluse?" "I'd also like to feel slightly less guarded sometimes in interviews or in whatever kind of interactions," Alwyn admitted, "but it's just a knee-jerk response to the culture we live in. If you give it to them, it just opens the door."

Alwyn and Swift quietly began dating in late 2016. Swift confirmed their relationship during a 2017 secret track-writing session for her album reputation when she reportedly told fans the song "Gorgeous" was about Alwyn. "Basically Taylor made us all promise that if anyone made any accusations of who this song is about, we tell them it is 100 percent about her angel boyfriend of one year," the fan wrote on Tumblr. "This isn't a secret. She wanted us to tell people."

Multiple interviewers have asked Alwyn about Swift, but he has only responded that he does not wish to talk about his private life. However, they have been more open to being seen together at different events in recent years, including an appearance last month at a pre-Oscars party.

As Alwyn mentioned in his latest interview with Elle, he does not compromise his personal life. "It's not really [because I] want to be guarded and private, it's more a response to something else," he explained. "We live in a culture that is so increasingly intrusive. The more you give and frankly, even if you don't give it, something will be taken." 

After years of being outspoken about her troubled love life, Swift has also been mum about her romance with Alwyn. The couple has collaborated on several songs from Swift's recent albums, with Alwyn contributing to 2020's Folklore and Evermore under his "William Bowery" pen name. In addition to co-writing the Bon Iver duet "Exile," he also wrote "Champagne Problems," "Coney Island," and the Justin Vernon's collaboration "Evermore" on the latter. The Favourite star took home a Grammy as a co-producer of Folklore after it won album of the year at the 2021 Grammy Awards.

Alwyn, who is starring in the upcoming Hulu adaptation of Sally Rooney's 2017 novel Conversations With Friends, has said not to look out for more Swift songwriting credits in the future. When asked by Elle interviewer Lauren Puckett-Pope if he would pen more tracks for his famous partner, he replied, "It's not a plan of mine, no," without mentioning Swift by name.

Disclosure: PopCulture. is owned by Paramount. Sign up for Paramount+ by clicking here.