Is Taylor proof the rebound rules?
Taylor Swift and Matty Healy’s reported new pairing has set the internet alight and got us thinking, is it time to embrace rebound relationships?
IS IT JUST US, or is there something refreshing about celebrities revealing they’re just as messed up as us when it comes to love? It’s heartening to know that these beacons of privilege – with all their unattainable beauty, endless romantic options and very expensive LA therapists – are also in the dating trenches, trying to heal from heartbreak in ways that possibly aren’t so healthy.
Take Taylor Swift and Matty Healy, for example, reportedly dating less than a month after her split from long-term boyfriend Joe Alwyn. While the pair have been friends for years, they’ve not-so-subtly been hinting at a new love affair. In separate concerts, both parties mouthed the words ‘This is about you, you know who you are. I love you!’ on tour recently, looking straight down the lens of their on-stage camera and subsequently recorded by their hordes of screaming fans who posted the parallel messaging on social media.
Not all of them are happy about the pairing, though, with Swifties loudly professing their opposition to their idol dating a man who once inspired the headline ‘A look back at the wankiest stuff The 1975’s Matty Healy has ever said’ by The Tab (the list was long).
But it got us thinking, maybe rebounds are the way forward after all – and isn’t the real joy of a rebound dating someone who is totally different to your ex? When the hope of long-lasting love with a partner you built your life with dies, sometimes the most exciting thing to do to distract yourself from the heartbreak is to throw yourself into a passionate, ridiculous love affair – one where you’re not quite sure how it will end. As long as you are honest with yourself, and your new partner, is there really any harm?
The internet certainly thinks so, in fact, reality star Francesca Farago set Tiktok ablaze recently after professing her love for rebound relationships on podcast Sofia With An F. ‘The only way to forget about a person and make sure you don’t text them again is to get a rebound,’ she told host Sofia Franklyn. ‘It will keep you distracted and make you realise if you did miss that person, then you can go back. But, honestly, it’s what you need after you get out of a relationship; fuck the self-healing.’
Sure, it doesn’t sound particularly healthy to be so dependent on others to make it through loss (as Francesca admits), and one must question how much you can truly heal old wounds while hopping from partner to partner, but it’s a Hollywood trend right now, nonetheless.
Last year, Avril Lavigne broke off her year-long engagement to fellow alternative musician Mod Sun, subsequently emerging with rapper Tyga in possibly the strangest celebrity pairing of all time. Kylie Jenner is currently said to be rebounding from her on-again-off-again relationship with Travis Scott, in favour of actor Timothée Chalamet, Hollywood’s most introverted heart-throb. Perhaps she’s following in her big sister Kim Kardashian’s footsteps – Kim shocked the world when she went public with quirky comedian Pete Davidson last year in the midst of her divorce from Kanye West. And now Taylor and Matty are here to steal the rebounding crown – but at least he may inspire some more heart-wrenching music, right?