John Mayer Responds to Taylor Swift Fan Who Told Him to ‘Choke on Something’

John Mayer apparently replied to a message from an anonymous Taylor Swift fan on Instagram this week. The singer dated Swift briefly in 2009, and after Swift released an extended version of her song “All Too Well” last week, vitriol for her ex-boyfriends is at an all-time high. However, even the anonymous message-sender did not expect Mayer to respond.

Swift’s song “All Too Well” is almost certainly a breakup ballad about her ex-boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal, but with that wound reopened, none of Swift’s exes were safe this week. In screenshots shared widely on social media, one anonymous user seemed to send a generic message of dislike to Mayer. The account has now been deleted, and so far the authenticity of the messages hasn’t been confirmed by anyone, but some fans feel like it could honestly be Mayer responding.

“F— yourself you ugly b— I hope you choke on something,” the opening DM begins. According to the screenshots, Mayer then responded: “Hi Alondra, it’s John. I’ve been getting so many messages like these the past couple of days, I decided to choose your message at random to reply to. You can feel free to screen shot, share in any way you like if you want. I’m not upset, I just tend to have a curious mind and feel compelled to ask. Do you really hope that I die?”

“OMG WHAT I don’t want you to DIE,” the anonymous user then responded. The messages were not shared in full, but they sent a 30-second audio clip to Mayer next, followed at some point by an apology. Mayer wrote: “It’s okay. I wanted to understand. So it’s a fun thing people are doing without taking into account that I might see it and be affected by it?”

“Yeah, I guess nobody really thought you would see it or answer since you are famous and don’t interact with random people,” the user responded. “Again, very sorry!!”

“There was some healing here today!” Mayer wrote in a later message. “It’s 100 percent okay. Go forth and live happy and healthy!”

The account that sent these messages to Mayer has now been deleted from Instagram and Twitter, but a screenshot of a follow-up tweet says that the user is just 15 years old and that they meant to delete their message before anyone could see it. The practice of flooding celebrities with anonymous messages is increasingly common among “Stan accounts” on social media, and many presume that stars don’t operate their own accounts, so they won’t personally see the hatred.

Mayer and Swift’s 2009 romance has still only ever been a rumor, but fans consider it to be an open secret. Swift wrote a song in 2010 called “Dear John” that seemed to be about Mayer. In 2012, Mayer said that he “didn’t deserve” the characterization he got in that song, telling an interviewer from Rolling Stone: “I’m pretty good at taking accountability now, and I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do.”

So far, Mayer has not confirmed or denied the validity of these message screenshots. Swift has not commented on them either, or on fans’ frantic posts about all of her exes this week.