Taylor Swift has confirmed her boyfriend Joe Alwyn co-wrote two songs on her latest album.
Swift, 30, surprised fans in July this year when she announced the release of her eighth studio album, Folklore, which she recorded in isolation during the coronavirus pandemic.
In a long Instagram post explaining why she was releasing the album, she also thanked someone named “William Bowery”, who she said had co-written two songs with her.
The mention led to speculation from her fans about Bowery’s identity as he did not appear to be a registered songwriter or producer.
Fans theorised that Bowery could be a pseudonym for either her brother Austin or her boyfriend of about three years, the English actor Joe Alwyn, 29.
Now Swift has confirmed Bowery is indeed Alwyn.
She cleared up the mystery during Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions on Disney+ which sees her performing songs from the album.
The singer also talks about stories and secrets behind all of the 16 songs.
She said: “There’s been a lot of discussion about William Bowery and his identity because it’s not a real person… That would have gone on forever…
“William Bowery is Joe as we know and Joe plays piano beautifully and he’s always just playing and making things up and kind of creating things and (the song) Exile was crazy because Joe had written that entire piano part and it was, singing the Bon Iver part, ‘I can see you standing honey…’
“He was just singing it the way that the whole first verse is and so I was entranced and asked if we could keep writing that one.
“It was pretty obvious that it should be a duet because he’s got such a low voice and it sounded really good sung down there.”
Swift and Alwyn have largely kept their relationship private.
However, in the US pop star’s 2019 track London Boy, she sings about her wide-ranging travels across the city having fallen for a London boy in the track, referring to locations such as Highgate, Hackney, Brixton and Bond Street.
The concert film also includes guest appearances from Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner and Bon Iver – who all appear on the album.
Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions was filmed in New York in September 2020 and premieres on Disney+ on Wednesday.