After the brief flame of “Hiddleswift” snuffed out, a.k.a. the three-month relationship between Tom Hiddleston and Taylor Swift that set tabloids abuzz and shocked fans of both, we never got an official explanation of what happened between the pair.
But in a new and highly revealing profile in GQ, Hiddleston opens up about the relationship — “of course it was real,” he says — and the aftermath. Part of the discussion? The moment in their relationship the Internet couldn’t seem to get over: The “I <3 T.S.” tank top he was photographed wearing at Swift’s celeb-filled 4th of July party.
“The truth is, it was the Fourth of July and a public holiday and we were playing a game and I slipped and hurt my back,” Hiddleston explained in the profile. “And I wanted to protect the graze from the sun and said, ‘Does anyone have a T-shirt?’ And one of her friends said, ‘I’ve got this’ (and pulled out the tank top). And we all laughed about it. It was a joke.”
“I have to be so psychologically strong about not letting other people’s interpretations about my life affect my life,” he continued. “A relationship exists between two people. We will always know what it was. The narratives that are out there altogether have been extrapolated from pictures that were taken without consent or permission, with no context. Nobody had the context for that story. And I’m still trying to work out a way of having a personal life and protecting it, but also without hiding. So the hardest thing is that that was a joke among friends on the Fourth of July.”
“I don’t know,” he added. “I just, I was surprised. I was just surprised that it got so much attention. The tank top became an emblem of this thing.”
Hiddleston has nothing but good things to say about his ex.
“I only know the woman I met. She’s incredible,” he said. “A relationship in the limelight… A relationship always takes work. A relationship in the limelight takes work. And it’s not just the limelight. It’s everything else.” He explained that they wanted to have a normal relationship, “so we decided to go out for dinner, we decided to travel.”
After the breakup, Hiddleston tried to go on as normal, but the paparazzi attention hadn’t let up, which he described as a tough time. But, he added, “I’m not going to live my life in hiding.”
The profile also offers this anecdote about Hiddleston’s post-Swift life with the press. Paparazzi caught photos of Hiddleston and GQ writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner as she was interviewing him for this piece, and the Daily Mail published a story about the actor and a “mystery brunette” laughing and hugging.
“For the record, I was laughing about his Attenborough impression; I was hugging him because we were saying good-bye after two days and because: Tom Hiddleston!” Brodesser-Akner writes.
Read the full profile here.
Tom Hiddleston explains the infamous Taylor Swift tank top – USA TODAY