Joe Alwyn is finally setting the record straight about his split from Taylor Swift.

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If you’re here, you already know the drill: Joe and Taylor dated for a pretty long time — about six years — before breaking up in April of last year.

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And unless you’ve been living under a dang moss-covered piano, you’re likely aware that Taylor’s latest album, The Tortured Poets Dept., seemingly carried a few references to her relationship with Joe.

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So, during a recent interview with The Sunday Times, Joe was asked if he’d listened to that album yet — and his response didn’t directly address the question, but it gave plenty of insight into his relationship with Taylor.

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“I would hope that anyone and everyone can empathize and understand the difficulties that come with the end of a long, loving, fully committed relationship of over six and a half years,” he said. “That is a hard thing to navigate.”

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He further reflected on the public nature of their breakup later in the interview, saying, “What is unusual and abnormal in this situation is that, one week later, it’s suddenly in the public domain and the outside world is able to weigh in.”

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“So you have something very real suddenly thrown into a very unreal space: tabloids, social media, press, where it is then dissected, speculated on, pulled out of shape beyond recognition. And the truth is, to that last point, there is always going to be a gap between what is known and what is said. I have made my peace with that.”

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Joe also specified that he and Taylor “mutually” decided to “keep the more private details of our relationship private.” “It was never something to commodify and I see no reason to change that now,” he added.

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He also demurred about his current relationship status or if he still talks to Taylor, and he had a pretty good reason why: “I’m sure you can appreciate, given the level of noise and scrutiny about my past relationship, why I wouldn’t want to just open the door to things like that right now.”

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