Like all Taylor Swift albums, folklore didn't disappoint when it came to hiding Easter eggs. The moment it dropped, fans went full-on Nancy Drew, unpacking lyrics that suggested everything from gifting her ex Joe Jonas a baby present to cracking the identity of the "The Last Great American Dynasty" (hint: it's not the Kennedys). While most of the tracks are open to interpretation, Swift did recently confirm one fan theory to be true.
During an appearance on Country Radio earlier this week, Taylor discussed the meaning behind the song "Betty" — and it turns out, Swifties were on to something when they speculated that the single was named after Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds's third daughter.
First, she spoke of the ill-fated romance between the two characters, Betty and James, saying: "[James] has lost the love of his life basically and doesn't understand how to get it back. I think we all have these situations in our lives where we learn to really, really give a heartfelt apology for the first time.”
“Everybody makes mistakes, everybody really messes up sometimes and this is a song that I wrote from the perspective of a 17-year-old boy,” she continued. “I've always loved that in music you can kinda slip into different identities and you can sing from other people's perspectives. So that's what I did on this one.”
Then, she went on to corroborate the theory behind the character names in the song, explaining, “I named all the characters in this story after my friends' kids... and I hope you like it!”
Although, she doesn't explicitly call out Blake and Ryan's three children as her inspiration, a source "with knowledge of the situation" recently told People that "Betty" "was named in part for Lively and Reynolds's youngest daughter." Well, there you have it.
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