Why Fans Think One of Taylor Swift's Viral 'End of an Era' Moments Was a Subtle Dig at Joe Alwyn

"She’s like 'someone finally gets it, instead of making me feel bad for it,'" one commenter wrote on X about the viral 'End of an Era' moment.

BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 05: 77th ANNUAL GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS -- Pictured: (l-r) Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn at the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 5, 2020. -- (Photo by Christopher Polk/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank)
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Although it's been a week now since the final two episodes of Taylor Swift's The End of an Era docuseries premiered on Disney+, fans are still dissecting and discussing many of the biggest revelations and most candid moments from the series.

One moment that got many fans' attention came during the docuseries' fourth episode, titled "Thank You for the Lovely Bouquet," in which Swift opened up about her relationship with her fiancé, Travis Kelce, and touched on what sets him apart from some of her exes.

Swift made one comment, in particular, that many interpreted as a subtle dig at actor Joe Alwyn, who the singer dated for more than six years.

"Travis is just very comfortable with, conceptually speaking, a big life," Swift says in the viral clip. "Because he has one."

"Oh the shade," one X user, whose post with the clip has been viewed more than 773,000 times, wrote along with the video.

In replies to the post, others were quick to make it clear they had the same interpretation of the clip.

One wrote that they saw the quote as Swift calling Kelce the "first guy I dated on my level," while another commented, "She’s like 'someone finally gets it, instead of making me feel bad for it.'"

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 15: Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce have dinner at Waverly Inn on October 15, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Gotham/GC Images)

Swift out in New York City in 2023 with Kelce, who she described as having a "big life" in a viral clip from her End of an Era docuseries.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

"Yes. He works for a billion dollar organization, performs for an audience of millions on a weekly basis, he understands the thrills and pressures of the lifestyle," another fan wrote of the ways that Kelce, like Swift, lives a "big" life. "He also lives out loud, not caring what outsiders think."

Still others expressed their reactions with GIFs and Swiftified labels like "shadelor" and "tayshade."

The so-called shadiness of the comment stems from the notoriously-private approach Swift and Alwyn took to their relationship, something many attribute largely to the actor's preference for living out of the spotlight as much as possible—and something that's incredibly difficult to do for someone as famous as Swift.

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 06: Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn are seen at Zuma restaurant on October 6, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Robert Kamau/GC Images)

Swift out in New York City in 2019 with Alwyn, who is notoriously protective of his privacy.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

While Swift didn't make any direct references to any of her exes, she did open up elsewhere in the fourth episode of the series about the difficult times she faced in her personal life early in the tour.

"There were points in this tour where the tour was really the only thing keeping me going in my life," she said (per E! Online). "But there were never points in the tour where I though, 'Oh I want to quit the tour because the tour is hard.' No, my personal life was hard."

The hard times she references include going through not just one, but two breakups in quick succession—first with Alwyn and then with The 1975 frontman Matty Healy following a brief, whirlwind romance shortly after her split from Alwyn—before connecting with Kelce in the summer of 2023.

"I went through two breakups in the first half of this tour and that's a lot of breakups, actually," she said. "This show gave me purpose and what I could use to get me out of bed. The tour has never been the hard thing in my life. The tour has been the thing that allowed me to find purpose outside of the sh*t that was going on in my life."

As hard as her personal life got, however, Swift said she always loved being on the Eras Tour.

"Men will let you down, and the Eras Tour never will," she quipped.

Contributing Editor at Marie Claire

Kayleigh Roberts is a freelance writer and editor with over 10 years of professional experience covering entertainment of all genres, from new movie and TV releases to nostalgia, and celebrity news. Her byline has appeared in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, The Atlantic, Allure, Entertainment Weekly, MTV, Bustle, Refinery29, Girls’ Life Magazine, Just Jared, and Tiger Beat, among other publications. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.