Taylor Swift's "But Daddy I Love Him" Is Her Last Word On Matty Healy

Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department has arrived, and it’s already sent the world in a tizzy. As fans have guessed, the confessional, and at times scathing record is filled with songs seemingly directed to or about Joe Alwyn, Matty Healy, Kim Kardashian, and more. But there’s another group of people Swift addresses for the first time: her own fans, though not in a way that you’d expect.

“But Daddy I Love Him” is one of several songs on the album that seemingly alludes to Swift and Healy’s momentary fling in 2023. But the song isn’t so much directly about him, as it is about her fanbase who heavily protested their relationship — and Swift has a few harsh words for them.

Swift and Healy’s short-lived romance kicked off around May 2023, just a month after she and ex Alwyn had publicly called it quits. Tabloids caught The 1975 singer attending Eras tour shows and holding hands with the pop star. By June 2023, they’d broken up, with sources telling ET that they “realized they're not really compatible with each other.” Yet in that month they managed to stir up a storm of drama as the public, and a lot of her fans, questioned their compatibility, and Swift’s decision-making skills, airing out racist comments he’d made about Ice Spice as well as disparaging remarks he also made about Swift in the past. (Healy has since apologized for both.)

“But Daddy I Love Him” is effectively Swift’s response to that drama, wrapped up in a not-so-subtle metaphor of a woman and man’s illicit relationship becoming a major scandal in a small town.

The song opens on Swift calling out the many “Sarahs and Hannahs in their Sunday best” who didn’t approve of their pairing. “Clutching their pearls, sighing “What a mess,” she sings. She asserts that their relationship was real, and in fact that he was “the only thing I wanted” — setting the record straight for anyone who thought their fling was a hoax, or just a simple rebound.

And despite the topic, there’s quite a bit of cheeky humor on the track, too. In the chorus, Swift darkly jokes, “I’m having his baby/ No I’m not, but you should see your faces,” perhaps as a jab at Swifties who can over-concern themselves with her life.

But the most scathing message she has for her fans is reserved for the bridge, on which she declares she’d “rather burn my whole life down/ Than listen to one more second of all this bitching and moaning.” Then, for good measure, she shuts down any lingering misunderstandings about who alone has control over her life and decisions: “I’ll tell you something about my good name/ It’s mine alone to disgrace/ I don’t cater to all these vipers dressed in empath’s clothing.” It’s her last word on the whole affair, that doubles as a mic drop.

If all of this seems too harsh, it’s worth noting that by the end of the album Healy doesn’t escape unscathed either, as Swift skewers him on songs like “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.” But Swift’s frustration with her fans and the deep parasocial relationships they’ve cultivated around her remain valid critiques. At the end of the day, it’s a reminder that no one can tell her who she’s gonna date — even if he gives you the ick.