Fans Already Found Proof Taylor Swift’s Bonus Track ‘The Bolter’ Is About Joe Alwyn

Taylor Swift has announced a new edition of The Tortured Poets Department, featuring a bonus track called “The Bolter.” Almost immediately after Swift dropped the news, Swifties dug up evidence that the song is about her ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn. They resurfaced a paparazzi video of Alwyn and Swift holding hands and bolting to their car to avoid being photographed after a VMAs after-party in August 2022. The video of their mad dash originally ran on Us Weekly, and got major media pickup.

Swift recently revealed that she started writing The Tortured Poets Department in February 2022, so that August 2022 date falls within the timeframe in which she worked on the album.

Swift and Alwyn were almost never seen together publicly during their six years dating. Alwyn did not attend any award shows with her, and she only went to the Golden Globes ceremony with him. They never posed on a red carpet together.

Alwyn spoke in May 2022 about how he hoped people would lose interest in them eventually, in a testament to how much he did not want their relationship to be public. “I think because the precedent was set—that our choice is to be private and not feed that side of things—the more you do that, hopefully, the more that intrusiveness or intrigue drops off,” he told GQ.

He made similar remarks to ELLE UK in April 2022, saying his and Swift’s decision to keep their relationship private was “not really [because I] want to be guarded and private, it’s more a response to something else. 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.”

Swift later discussed public versus private relationships in her December 2023 Time interview, referencing her current and very public Travis Kelce romance. Her remarks hint that she might not have seen her and Alwyn’s privacy as positively as he did.

“When you say a relationship is public, that means I’m going to see him do what he loves, we’re showing up for each other, other people are there, and we don’t care,” she said. “The opposite of that is you have to go to an extreme amount of effort to make sure no one knows that you’re seeing someone. And we’re just proud of each other.”

In December, an industry source also noted to Page Six how much Alwyn did not want to be in the spotlight. “Joe would rather cut off his arm than go to Zero Bond [a members-only club that Swift frequents now],” the source said.

A Swift insider added, regarding her more public relationship with Kelce, “Taylor is so in love. She just hasn’t been with a guy who is so excited and proud to be with her in so long. She’d gotten used to having to hide away and lay low whenever she’s been in a relationship.”

“Calvin [Harris, the DJ Swift dated in 2015 and 2016] and Joe were BIG on hiding. So she followed their lead,” they continued. “But now she’s finally with someone who is appropriately like, ‘Holy shit, I’m with Taylor Swift! Awesome!’ and she’s so delighted that she gets to be out in the world. Don’t forget, this is a girl who made out with Harry Styles in Times Square [on New Year’s Eve 2012] and posted pictures of her fling [actor Tom Hiddleston, in 2016] wearing an ‘I heart TS’ T-shirt. Low key isn’t actually her preferred vibe. But when it’s been at the insistence of the guy she’s with, she’s gone along with it.”