GETTING SERIOUS WITH HER PRINCE CHARMING
THE reason Taylor fancies herself as a Londoner is Joe Alwyn, a handsome actor from a liberal, arty North London family. When their romance began in the spring of 2017, their worlds were polar opposites. He was still living at home in Crouch End with his parents — while Taylor had the pick of a number of mansions and two private jets. Taylor also had 128 million followers on Instagram — to his 193.
Joe’s father Richard is an award-winning documentary maker, his grandfather was a TV producer, and his great-grandfather was a classical music composer and CBE. Mum Margaret is a psychotherapist and her mother, Rosemary, is the sister of CND bigwig Bruce Kent.
Described as ‘very serious’ but ‘thoroughly nice’, he has pale blue eyes like the late Paul Newman.
Indeed he is so impossibly good-looking that film director Ang Lee said he nearly didn’t cast him in a film. ‘I was worried: Is he too handsome? But then his face is so compelling, it doesn’t matter.’
Cupid struck at a preOscars party in February 2017 where he was hanging out with actress Emma
Stone. Stone appeared in The Favourite alongside Alwyn and has been friends with Taylor for years.
The romance was kept under wraps because her previous romance had turned actor Tom Hiddleston into a figure of fun, and left Taylor feeling ‘used’.
Alwyn was educated at City of London school, where fees are €17,000 a year, and was in the same class as Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe.
He landed a leading role in the Ang Lee film Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk while still studying drama at college. His old drama teacher Geoffrey Colman, head of acting at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, said: ‘Joe was always deeply committed to his craft. He was often very moved by the massiveness of his vocation.’ Film-maker Jordan Bunton-Williams, who was at the Royal Central School at the same time as Joe, said: ‘He’s hardworking, disciplined, down to earth, very diligent and very gregarious. A very nice spirit to be around.
‘He’s very charismatic, what I refer to as your classic Prince Charming.
‘All the girls in our year fancied him. It’s the way he holds himself.’