Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn

After choosing to ‘disappear,’ the star is back in public with her new man

TALKING WITH HER BOYFRIEND, actor Joe Alwyn, over morning coffee on the balcony of her Nashville apartment on June 4, a barefoot Taylor Swift looked comfortable to be ending the selfimposed exile she began a couple of months ago. It might have something to do with her new man, a source tells WHO: “Taylor and Joe arrived in Nashville on Friday and spent the weekend there. It does seem they’re getting more serious.” After secretly dating for months, the pair went public on June 1 and were photographed together for the first time as they flew out of the UK bound for Los Angeles, trying to stay incognito by pulling matching hoodies over their heads. In LA, they headed to Swift’s Beverly Hills home briefly before hopping a jet for the getaway to Nashville, where they hung out with her parents, Andrea and Scott. “She looks relaxed and very happy,” says the source. “Joe makes her laugh.”

The slow-burn reveal of the romance is a deliberate tactic from the “Shake It Off” singer, with multiple insiders telling WHO in May she is keeping things with actor Alwyn ( Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk) on the down-low after “learning from the past.” Says the source, “Taylor has been insanely private about her relationship with Joe. She wanted to get to know him without any chaos.”

She has gone to some lengths to do that. The singer, 27, has reportedly been wearing disguises while renting a house in North London to spend time with Alwyn, 26, who is “a very normal, down-to-earth guy,” says a second source. “He’s private and low-key.”

Before things turned romantic the Grammy winner had been friends with the rising star, who according to The Sun lives with his parents. But after the spotlit implosion of her relationship last year with actor Tom Hiddleston, 36, Swift had kept her joy private. “Taylor made the conscious choice to disappear,” says a source. “She was feeling overexposed and like things were almost spiralling out of control. She’s being low-key and secretive because it makes her happy.”

Swift—she released her hit song “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” (with Zayn Malik) for the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack in January—is also back to work on new music and “is very excited about her new album,” adds the source. “She can’t wait to share with her fans later this year.”

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