CELEBRITY
Matty Healy get his revenge on Taylor Swift with new The 1975 album: Rocker ‘won’t hold back’ about their fling and ‘didn’t sign an NDA during brief romance’
Healy, 35, is thought to have provided inspiration for a series of unflattering and occasionally eviscerating lyrics on Swift’s latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, following their brief relationship in 2023.
Numerous tracks on the album refer to an unnamed wayward boyfriend, among them But Daddy I Love Him, Down Bad, I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can) and The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived. But Healy will have an opportunity to respond while writing and recording a new album with The 1975 – the band’s sixth and their follow up to 2022 release Being Funny In A Foreign Language.
Healy alluded to his former relationship with R&B artist FKA twigs numerous times on the album, with stand out tracks I’m In Love With You, All I Need To Hear and When We Are Together believed to be inspired by their romance. ‘Matty is currently keeping a low profile working on The 1975’s next album. This time last week he had no idea he was about to become one of the most talked about men on the planet,’ a source told The Sun.
‘He has opted to keep silent, but no NDA has been signed. Like Taylor, he uses his music as a form of release and storytelling, it’s naturally caused him to think about their time together and he’s never been one to hold back when speaking his mind. ‘Also like Taylor, he’s moved on and is very happy with his current relationship with Gabbriette Bechtel but there is nothing stopping him from writing about his romance with Taylor and having his say on what she said about him.’
The insider added fans should wait in anticipation for when the band’s next album drops. It comes as Healy broke his silence on Wednesday on the music which documents their failed romance. Asked by a reporter from Entertainment Tonight on Wednesday what he thought of the ‘diss track’ he politely replied: ‘I haven’t really listened to that much of it but I’m sure it’s good.’ Swift’s eleventh album was released on April 19 as speculation the diss song was about Healy hit fever pitch around the world.
Choice lyrics refer to a man in a ‘Jehovah’s Witness suit’ responsible for ‘rusting my sparkling summer’. Healy is known for wearing distinctive black suits during live performances and the pair are believed to have broken up in June 2023. According to Us Weekly, his reaction has been positive, and the people close to him ‘couldn’t be happier’ with how the record turned out. A source said on Saturday: ‘Matty still thinks very highly of Taylor but we were all nervous about what she might have said on the album.
‘Matty’s family were worried that Taylor was going to rip him apart. Matty has struggled with life in the public eye, and he’s been doing really well, but the last thing that he needs is for every Swiftie in the world to think he’s a villain.’ Another insider told the publication: ‘He was worried that their story would be shed in a negative light’ but was ‘really appreciative of the heads up’ he got from Swift. It came after Healy’s family gave a withering assessment of his ex Taylor after she appeared to savage him on her new album.
His aunt appeared scornful of Swift’s candour about her exes, including Matty, when she spoke to MailOnline. He is now thought to be dating model Gabbriette Bechtel – with whom his aunt says he is ‘very happy’. Debbie Dedes said of how Healy would react: ‘Nothing surprises him any more. ‘He will not be surprised by the song. Him and her know what went on.’ And Debbie, who as sister of Healy’s celebrity mum Denise Welch has known him since birth, went on: ‘She writes about all her relationships, doesn’t she?
‘I don’t think it will come as a shock to him at all. ‘He’s very happy in his new relationship so I’m sure he will be focusing on that.’ And hinting that Healy has his own version of the relationship that he has been too respectful to share publicly, Debbie added: ‘As my nephew, we know a bit more about what went on than has been in the press.’ Other lyrics in the song suggest the unnamed subject of the title ‘tried to buy some pills’ and ‘didn’t measure up in any measure of a man’.
Healy has openly spoken about his drug problems in the past, and has said in interviews he is tired of speculation about his height, claiming to be 5ft 10ins, but dwarfed by other members of The 1975. He told The Fader in 2018: ‘Everyone in [the 1975] is 6ft 4ins and I’m 5ft 10ins, so everyone thinks that I’m 5ft 5ins.’ Swift found herself in a whirlwind romance with Healy — though neither ever directly confirmed — that started in April 2023 after they were seen kissing in NYC .
But the fling ended as fast as it began after Healy’s ‘bad boy’ image and ‘racist’ remarks caused squeaky clean Swift to face backlash. She is now happily in love with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce — but it’s clear she still has a few bones to pick with the ‘worst men’ in her life . Swifties have been furiously speculating about the potential targets of the singer’s songs on the new album – which was initially launched as a 16-song volume before a surprise additional release of 15 songs came two hours later.
The singer, who has reinvented herself over the years as a pop icon and more recently as a folksy indie voice of introspection, describes the album as capturing a ‘fleeting and fatalistic moment in time – one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure.