Taylor, 30, who is worth £282 million, had popped in to celebrate British boyfriend Joe Alwyn’s 29th birthday with close pal, singer Ed Sheeran and his wife Cherry
Dinner at Bob Bob Ricard in Soho — with its endlessly Instagrammed marble interiors and famous ‘press for champagne’ button — is a luxe London experience.
And earlier this month, pop superstar Taylor Swift was among the throng sampling its English and Russian menu and renowned cocktails.
Taylor, 30, who is worth £282 million, had popped in to celebrate British boyfriend Joe Alwyn’s 29th birthday with close pal, singer Ed Sheeran and his wife Cherry.
She was pictured emerging with Alwyn and her bodyguards, giggling under a brolly and hiding her face.
Someone had given Joe a gift of an English dictionary or, more likely, someone had presented it to Taylor to gently pull her leg, for she has been spending weeks in the UK and rather fancies herself as a native.
Since starting her romance with Alwyn three years ago, the couple have been living on and off in North London — as under-the-radar as possible.
As she told a crowd at Wembley last year, the capital is becoming her second home.
Ed Sheeran said of the romance: ‘He’s nice. Really, really friendly, really good dude. She’s been in London quite a bit.’
So how do they stay so private? And who is the young actor who has captured Taylor’s heart? ALISON BOSHOFF reports . . .
She was pictured emerging with Alwyn and her bodyguards, giggling under a brolly and hiding her face
The couple (pictured above leaving Spaniards Inn) were also said to have rented a Peugeot car and driven down to Brighton together
A diva in disguise
In the early days of the romance she apparently went out a few times in a dark bobbed wig with Joe, to Pizza Express in Hampstead and to the nearby Spaniards Inn — and passed unrecognised.
Her security would sit in plain clothes on the next table.
The couple were also said to have rented a Peugeot car and driven down to Brighton together.
And if you think that donning a disguise sounds extreme, One Direction’s Zayn Malik recently let slip that Taylor had been known to squash herself into a suitcase to get to places unnoticed.
In the early days of the romance she apparently went out a few times in a dark bobbed wig with Joe, to Pizza Express in Hampstead (above) and to the nearby Spaniards Inn — and passed unrecognised
Borrowing pal’s places
Model Cara Delevingne apparently loaned Taylor and Joe her house in Chiswick during the early days of the romance in 2017.
On a trip to meet Joe’s family and friends, Taylor is said to have stayed there and walked Cara’s dog around the local park.
The loved-up pair spent Christmas 2018 at Glin Castle in Limerick, Ireland, owned by the actor Dominic West.
The couple hired the entire place, which has 15 bedrooms, and Joe Instagrammed a picture of himself walking locally.
It’s said that they popped into their local, O’Shaughnessy’s, for a few drinks. The trip cost them £48,000.
Bye-bye to the bikini parties
Who can forget those internet pictures of Taylor and her ‘squad’ comprising models Karlie Kloss and Cara Delevingne spending successive Independence Days at Taylor’s beach house on Rhode Island?
Well, since meeting Joe the parties have been cancelled. In 2017, Taylor spent the day quietly with Joe and his mum and dad at a rented house in North London, having a traditional English roast.
The following year, the young couple were on holiday in the Turks and Caicos.
In 2019, she was preparing for the release of the album Lover.
A source said: ‘Taylor was looking forward to spending this year’s Fourth of July with Joe as a couple and just be in love and hang out together.
She didn’t exactly want to have one of her epic parties because she enjoys keeping this relationship close to her chest and close to her heart.’
Who can forget those internet pictures of Taylor and her ‘squad’ comprising models Karlie Kloss and Cara Delevingne spending successive Independence Days at Taylor’s beach house on Rhode Island?
Steak nights…and kissing
In August 2018, the two of them were pictured holding hands after going out for dinner to Hawksmoor restaurant in Covent Garden.
In August 2018, the two of them were pictured holding hands after going out for dinner to Hawksmoor restaurant in Covent Garden
They ate steak and panna cotta, and her bodyguards took the neighbouring table. She had flown to London to see Joe during a five-day break in her tour.
She was also among those who went to the London premiere of his film Mary Queen Of Scots this year, but entered the cinema by a side door to avoid being pictured.
In 2019, she and Joe went to Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag show in the West End.
Last February, when Taylor was in London filming Cats, the couple attended the Baftas as a couple. Although the event clashed with the Grammy awards in LA, she supported Joe whose film The Favourite was named Best British Film. Afterwards, they went to the Vogue party.
Taylor posted a picture of herself in her Stella McCartney dress and wrote ‘@thefavouritemovie just won seven @bafta awards!!! About to go give some high fives.’
Taylor was a surprise guest at the NME awards in London last month. She won the Best Solo Artist in the World prize and she and Joe were seen kissing and hugging at one of the tables at the Brixton Academy.
Writing the lyrics of love
Taylor wrote a song, London Boy about her romance with Joe Alwyn.
It runs: ‘They say home is where the heart is/But that’s not where mine lives/You know I love a London boy/I enjoy walking Camden Market in the afternoon/He likes my American smile/Like a child when our eyes meet, darling, I fancy you.’
It adds that he took her to Highgate, where she ‘met all of his best mates . . . now I love high tea, stories from uni, and the West End/You can find me in the pub, we are watching rugby with his school friends.’
In 2019, she released the song Lover which also seems to be about him. It runs: ‘I have loved you for three summers now Honey but I want em all.’
Get used to the bodyguards
Taylor is never seen without at least two burly bodyguards, and her security detail generally also includes a bodyguard/driver, too.
In 2018, after leaving her apartment with Joe, a bodyguard was filmed telling a photographer: ‘I will put a bullet in you one day,’ after he got too close.
She has suffered repeated problems with stalkers and police recently found a man wearing a mask about to break into her house in Beverly Hills.
The London House
Much of the romance has been conducted in a rented house on the Highgate/Hampstead borders.
Taylor apparently loves to cook both for Alwyn and her security detail, and her boyfriend has nicknamed her ‘the feeder’.
Recipes by Delia Smith are a favourite, and she also loves Nigella.
Because of the scale of her fame, going out has been relatively limited but she has been able to go to people’s houses for visits.
A source said: ‘It has been intoxicating for her to have anonymity again as she has been famous since she was 16.’
Visitors report that the rented London property has Le Labo Santal 26 Classic Candles, £52 each, in every room, Jo Malone’s Pomegranate Noir hand soap and a pile of board games in the living room.
She apparently has a budget of £30 million to buy a London home, but has yet to find anywhere she really loves.
Much of the romance has been conducted in a rented house on the Highgate/Hampstead borders
Romance across the sea
Taylor and Joe appear to be living together in houses on both sides of the Atlantic. Taylor has three homes in New York, a mansion on Rhode Island, another in Beverly Hills and two properties in Nashville, Tennessee.
She is understood to have been spending a lot of time in Nashville recently as her mother, Andrea, was diagnosed with a brain tumour last year during her second fight against cancer.
Taylor briefly referred to the issues in her Netflix documentary, Taylor Swift: Miss Americana, saying: ‘She was going through chemo, and that’s a hard enough thing for a person to go through.
‘While she was going through treatment, they found a brain tumour. It’s just been a really hard time for us as a family.’
Her mother’s health has affected her plans for 2020. She is headlining Glastonbury during a month long ‘festival tour’ instead of spending months on the road to do a world tour with her new album — and wants to be able to get home to Tennessee quickly if she needs to.
Not the first…
Her first boyfriend was Joe Jonas of boyband The Jonas Brothers. Then came actor Taylor Lautner, at the peak of his fame thanks to his role as Jacob Black in the Twilight films.
She dumped him for singer John Mayer, who she dated until February 2010. Next came actor Jake Gyllenhaal.
The romance lasted from October 2010 to January 2011, kicking off just as she released her third album.
He broke up with her — her people said by text message — and she penned the 2012 global smash We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together about him.
Then came flings with Conor Kennedy, a scion of the Kennedy dynasty and Harry Styles, the One Direction superstar. They were an item from December 2012 to January 2013.
She dated Scottish DJ Calvin Harris for 15 months and then moved on to British actor Tom Hiddleston. They dated for three months in 2016.
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.
Alwyn was educated at City of London school, where fees are £16,000 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
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.’
He is pictured above with Margot Robbie in Mary Queen of Scots (2018). The reason Taylor fancies herself as a Londoner is Joe Alwyn, a handsome actor from a liberal, arty North London family
Cupid struck at a pre-Oscars 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 £16,000 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.’