Taylor Swift has a great life – she’s a worldwide superstar, she’s got tons of friends and a close family – what’s not to love? The one thing missing from her existence these days, as everyone in the press keeps pointing out, is a romantic partner. Sure, she’s done her share of dating, but she’s sworn men off in recent months because they just don’t fit into her grand plans. In fact, she doesn’t know when she’ll be in a relationship again, as she explained in a new interview with The Telegraph.
Ask her what the tape looks like if you fast-forward five years and she seems less certain. ‘I’ll be 30,’ she gasps. ‘I’ll probably still be single, let’s be honest. No one’s going to sign up for this and everything that goes with it. Like, “Hi, nice to meet you, want a date? Do you love camera flashes? I hope you do!” I don’t know what’s going to happen if I’m ever content in a relationship – no idea how that’s going to work,’ she continues, still smiling. ‘I don’t even know if that’s possible with the life I have.
‘“In five years’ time she’ll be so afraid of everything, she doesn’t leave her house,”’ she says, laughing self-mockingly. ‘“She’s just surrounded by cats. So many cats, they’ve divided themselves up into armies and she wanders around lint-rolling the couch that no one’s going to sit on because she’s afraid to have people over…”’
Aw, that’s… sweet? Sad? I can’t really decide. I know she’s being lighthearted and self-deprecating here, and I also know that fame is her choice and she could leave it behind if she really wanted to. She’s certainly made enough money to live the rest of her life rather comfortably without having to be in the spotlight. But fame just seems so isolating – I couldn’t do it. I don’t think you need romance to make your life complete, so that’s not what saddens me, but it’s not knowing who can handle that life alongside you – even down to friends. You never know who you can trust. Shame.
Anyhow, Taylor also spoke about the perception of her as a serial kill-and-tell-er:
‘My point is not to be sexy, my point is not to turn masses of people on.’ And she made a determined attempt to cause a ‘change in the narrative’ that had portrayed her as some sort of serial-dating bunny-boiler (an idea her song Blank Space skewers deliciously, by writing from the perspective of that character). ‘There was a bit of a reputation for having a lot of boy-bashing songs,’ she says, referring to the likes of I Knew You Were Trouble and Should’ve Said No. ‘Which is a sexist way of saying heartbreak songs. To trivialise someone who’s heartbroken is really cruel. But people have to simplify things,’ she says. ‘Everybody’s got busy lives, they don’t have time to form a complex opinion of me and my music. I’m in a different place in my life, where love isn’t really a priority. I haven’t dated anyone in years so there’s less chatter about the serial dater thing. I’m just really excited at an awards show when they don’t make some weird joke about my dating life.’
And about her refusal to ever discuss her feud with Katy Perry publicly:
‘I’m not giving them anything to write about,’ she says, smiling steelily. ‘I’m not walking up the street with boys, I’m not stumbling out of clubs drunk. But I’m never going to talk about her in my interview. It’s not going to happen.’
Well, that’s that. More deep thoughts from Taylor Swift. Sure, I get why some people find certain things about her to be somewhat obnoxious, but I can’t help but find her really likeable.
