For all we know, Joe Alwyn might still be working at that yogurt shop. The actor’s public appearances have been even more few and far between since his April 2023 split from Taylor Swift. It seems Alwyn has gone largely off the grid.
Alwyn dated American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift for six years. He worked with Swift on ten of her songs released from 2020 to 2022, including Exile from Swift’s eighth studio album, Folklore, which won the Album of the Year at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. He won a Trophée Chopard at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and appeared on the 2022 Time 100 Next list of rising stars.
Why is Joey Alwyn called the yogurt boy by the Swifties?
With the release of Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department album earlier today, fans on social media have warned Joey Alwyn aka “yogurt boy” to stay in hiding as he was speculated to be the subject of many of her new songs.
The origin of the nickname or perhaps insult comes straight from one of Swift’s songs. “Teal was the color of your shirt / When you were sixteen at the yogurt shop / You used to work at to make a little money,” she sings on Invisible String from 2020’s Folklore.
Alwyn previously revealed that he worked at Snogs’ Frozen Yogurt in London, where all the employees wore the same teal polo featuring the company’s logo.
“I did have this one job in London. Do you know that frozen yogurt place, Snog?” Alwyn said during a January 2020 interview with Red Magazine, calling the experience “exceptional.”
When Swift wrote Invisible String, there’s no telling if she knew that the yogurt shop reference would come back to haunt her now-ex. Some fans, however, are convinced she’s a witch with sorcery magic, so maybe it all was part of her “mastermind” plan.
Swift and Alwyn dated for six years before Us Weekly confirmed their split, and the Conversations With Friends star made his first public appearance after the breakup news in May 2023. At the time, he attended a dinner hosted at the Cannes Film Festival.
Months went by before Alwyn surfaced again. This time around, he walked the red carpet at the GQ Men of the Year Awards in November 2023.
When it comes to any forthcoming sightings, Alwyn does have a starring role in the upcoming Yorgos Lanthimos film Kinds of Kindness, so a promotional tour could be in his future. Since Alwyn was so against speaking of Swift when they were together, it’s a safe bet that he will not be commenting on his ex’s new album or addressing the “yogurt boy” of it all.
From London Boy to So Long, London
If there is any song on The Tortured Poets Department’s track list that seems to literally have Joe Alwyn’s name on it, it’s So Long, London. The song matches up, explaining why Swift stopped fighting for their relationship.
Alwyn grew up in London, and he and Swift spent a lot of time in the city together while they were dating. She even reportedly bought a house there after their breakup. Additionally, Swift used London to refer to Alwyn before in her music, writing her Lover song London Boy about him.
In So Long, London, Swift reveals far more about her heartbreak than she has in any interview. Here, the lyrics annotated with any Alwyn references. So Long, London reads as a sister song to Midnights’ You’re Losing Me, where Swift sings about the death of her romance with Alwyn.
“I stopped CPR after all it’s no use / The spirit was gone we would never come to / And I’m pissed off you would let me give you all that youth for free for so long, London,” she sings in the second chorus.
In You’re Losing Me, Swift, who recorded her own heartbeat for the track once again compares the relationship to a failing body, claiming that her partner “couldn’t admit that we were sick.”
Swift also notes her “quiet resentment” toward her now-ex in So Long, London, which she says has grown over time.“You swore that you loved me but where were the clues,” she asks. “I died on the altar waiting for the proof. You sacrificed us to the God of your bluest days.”
Swift frequently used blue in her music, referencing Alwyn and her desire to build a life with her in songs like Paper Rings, Lover, Peace, and You’re Losing Me. Alwyn’s potential struggle with anxiety and depression has also been alluded to in some of Swift’s music. Lover claims “My heart’s been borrowed and yours has been blue,” while Renegade questions, “Is it your anxiety that stops you from giving me everything? / Or do you just not want to?”
In So Long, London, Swift claims she “carried the weight of the rift” between her and Alwyn until her “spine split from carrying us up the hill.”
“Stopped trying to make him laugh,” she says. “Stopped trying to drill the safe / And I’m just getting color back into my face, I’m just mad as hell because I loved this place for so long, London.” She ends the song by declaring, “Had a good run .. but I’m not the one, London.”
