Taylor Seemingly Calls Out Matty Healy In This Tortured Poets Song

You can breathe easy, Joe Alwyn. Before Taylor Swift’s album The Tortured Poets Department dropped, fans assumed most of the songs would be vengeful diatribes about the British actor given the shady titles. But she actually seemed to take aim at another London Boy. The most eyebrow-raising lyrics throughout the album seem to be inspired by Swift’s most recent rumored ex, Matty Healy. And one song in particular really goes in on The 1975 frontman.

In “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” Swift laments a disastrous failed relationship. But it doesn’t sound like she’s singing about the end of her six years with Alwyn. She looks back on this ex as “rusting [her] sparkling summer,” suggesting they only dated for a season — notably, Swift and Healy were linked for about a month in the summer of 2023.

She also says this ex “ghosted” her and was “gone by the morning,” which also suggests a more short-term romance. “You tried to buy some pills from a friend of friends of mine / They just ghosted you, now you know what it feels like,” Swift sings.

Swift later notes how this ex “sank in stoned oblivion.” Healy has said he smokes marijuana “all the time,” and smoking cigarettes has become a regular part of his live shows.

Several other lyrics stand out as being particularly Healy-coded. Swift describes her ex’s garment as a “Jehovah’s Witness suit,” and Healy is known for wearing suits at his concerts. Another lyric seems to describe someone’s raucous behavior when on stage: “You kicked the stage lights, but you’re still performing.” Swift also lets out, “I would die for your sins, instead I just died inside.” Healy was infamously mired in controversy after a string of problematic remarks right around the time he and Swift reportedly started dating.

Finally, there’s the more literal read of the track’s title. Healy is on the shorter side of the men Swift has dated, whereas Alwyn stood taller than her at 6’2”.

If “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” really is about Healy, it sounds like Swift majorly regrets their relationship, and now questions his motives. “Were you sent by someone who wanted me dead? Did you sleep with a gun underneath my bed? Were you writing a book? Were you a sleeper-cell spy?” Swift bellows in the song’s bridge.

She ends the tirade by promising to never absolve her ex. “I’ll forget you, but I’ll never forgive / the smallest man who ever lived.”