Why does Joe Alwyn look so cozy with Kendall Jenner?
This past year has gone very well for Taylor Swift. But while her current relationship makes headlines, her ex is no stranger to fame, either.
Why would Joe Alwyn cozy up to someone with whom Taylor has a seemingly contentious relationship?
Taylor isn’t exactly besties with Kendall Jenner. What’s Joe’s angle?
Don’t Joe Alwyn and Kendall Jenner look so cozy, here?
In a cozy new photo that Vogue shared on Instagram, Joe Alwyn is posing with Kendall Jenner.
To be clear, it’s not a date night photo. At least, not to anyone’s knowledge. Rather, on Saturday, October 19, both Joe Alwyn and Kendall Jenner attended the Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles.
As you can see in one of the photos below, Joe posed with his arm around a blonde Kendall. Also in the photo is Patrick Schwarzenegger, who (as many often forget) is actually another of Taylor’s exes.
Sometimes, famous people just bump into each other, whether they’re at a party or an industry function (or, often, both). This can mean posing for photos with strangers — or with people who will one day be notorious monsters.
However, Joe Alwyn obviously knows who Kendall Jenner is. In fact, he spent many years with Taylor in the immediate aftermath of her 2016 takedown.
Not to mention that Taylor and Kendall were both seemingly in entanglements with Harry Styles within mere months of each other.
Why aren’t Taylor Swift and Kendall Jenner besties?
There was a time when Kendall Jenner had enough mutual friends with Taylor Swift that people assumed that they were friendly. Not besties, and Kendall was never part of Taylor’s “squad” to anyone’s knowledge. But they didn’t seem to have any issues.
However, in 2016, Kanye West capitalized on Taylor Swift’s absolutely-everywhere popularity by singing about her in “Famous,” calling her a “b–ch” and suggesting that he and Taylor “might still have sex.” He also portrayed her nude as a mannequin in a music video.
When Taylor clearly objected, Kim Kardashian pretty famously released a heavily edited audio recording of a call with Taylor. The edit seemed to suggest that Taylor was fine with the lyrics and had merely felt uncomfortable with Ye’s song.
When the full audio later became public, it was clear that Taylor had not received all of the information. By that point, Kim had capitalized on other blowback and Taylor’s state of overexposure — so the truth came too late.
Those were Kim’s actions and hers alone. She was defending her awful husband, though thankfully the two are no longer married.
What does it have to do with Kendall Jenner? Simply put, the Kardashian family’s habit of circling the wagons means that warring with one of them means warring with all of them. Which means that Kim’s enemies generally become everyone else’s within the family.
Is this a message to Taylor Swift?
All that we can reasonably say with certainty is that Joe Alwyn taking a cozy pic with Kendall Jenner had to be a conscious choice. One can reasonably assume that he knew how people would react.
It’s possible that Taylor doesn’t care about the trickle-down feud with Kendall despite everything that Kim did to her. Joe isn’t her current boyfriend; he’ll always be part of her story, but he’s no longer part of her life.
Maybe he was stirring the pot with Swifties. But it seems more likely that the notoriously fame-shy actor was just posing for photos and isn’t trying to play any weird socio-political mind games.