Who is Matty Healy? Meet Taylor Swift's 'controversial' boyfriend and The 1975 frontman

The 1975 front man Matty Healy has been in the headlines ever since news broke of Taylor Swift and him being romantically involved. While many were wary of the Karma singer moving on swiftly after ending her 6-year long relationship with actor Joe Alwyn, Healy's presence at Taylor's Nashville concert on May 5, after flying in from Philippines between the Asia leg of his own tour, all but confirmed the rumours. Though Healy has already attained pop culture icon status independently, his romantic association with Taylor Swift has renewed fresh interest in all there is to know about the About You singer.

Healy's early years

The arch lights and showbiz have been no stranger to Matty Healy with his father being an actor and his mother an actress and television presenter. Healy amply displayed his inclination to singing and music since his childhood having been around famous personalities, a fact which he believed made it all the more likely for him to achieve fame. He attended The Academy of Contemporary Music for all of three months before dropping out but continues to be listed as a 2008 alumnus. 

His association with The 1975

The 1975 was formed when Healy was all of 13 years old. The band had always been his only priority also urging the remaining band members to commit to their collective musical career. While initially the band found it hard to establish themselves with Healy also working in a Chinese restaurant for the duration, they experienced a breakthrough with their eponymous album released in 2013, momentum for which had been built with their four extended plays in 2012.

 

 

 

 

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On Healy's personal life

Matty Healy was dating singer Halsey in 2013 with the latter also revealing him to have inspired her early songwriting trajectory. Healy moved on to a long-standing relationship with Australian model Gabriella Brooks between 2015-2019. The singer has also had a history of drug abuse though he has shared news of his sobriety with fans off late. Speaking to Pitchfork about his political leanings, Healy had said, "I suppose I’m a traditional progressive who is suspicious of woke-ism as a viable worldview or device to make things better." 

On his controversies

Matty Healy has been embroiled in multiple controversies since he broke into the limelight, with all of them resurfacing since his alleged romance with Taylor Swift went public. One such instance in particular has been a 2016 interview in which he had categorically stated that dating Swift would "emasculate" him. A now unavailable episode from The Adam Friedland Show featured Healy making explicitly racist remarks about rapper Ice Spice, also allegedly calling her a "chubby Chinese lady". He has also been known to mock some of his fans from different ethnicities with two incidents involving Irish fans. Healy has also indulged in inappropriate behaviour such as kissing a fan mid-concert. With all his antics, intentional or otherwise, resurfacing from the past, Taylor Swift has conspicuously held her silence so far on the same.