Taylor Swift has a knack for writing about the ups and downs of falling in love — using her several high-profile relationships as inspiration.

Swift previously admitted that she received a range of responses from her ex-boyfriends about her music, including Jake Gyllenhaal. “He was like, ‘I just listened to the album, and that was a really bittersweet experience for me. It was like going through a photo album.’ That was nice,” she told New York magazine of his reaction to the song “All Too Well” off her 2012 album Red.

 

Not all her hits are breakup anthems, however. After sparking her romance with Joe Alwyn in 2017
Joe and I really love sad songs. We’ve always bonded over music. … We write the saddest. We just really love sad songs. What can I say?” Swift told Zane Lowe in December 2020 of creating her Folklore album with Alwyn. “And I say it was a surprise that we started writing together, but in a way, it wasn’t because we have always bonded over music and had the same musical tastes. And he’s always the person who’s showing me songs by artists and then they become my favorite songs.”
Scroll down to find out which celebrities have inspired Swift’s music over the years:

Forever & Always (2008)

Who: Joe Jonas

Lyric: “Did I say something way too honest? / Made you run and hide like a scared little boy?”
Lyric: “She’s not a saint / And she’s not what you think / She’s an actress. / She’s better known / For the things that she does / On the mattress.”

Dear John (2010)

Who: John Mayer

Lyric: “Dear John, I see it all now it was wrong / Don’t you think 19’s too young to be played by your dark, twisted games? / When I loved you so, I should’ve known.”