Fans are convinced this friendship is rotten right to the core.
Taylor Swift, 35, isn’t holding back on her 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” which dropped Friday, Oct. 3.
Now, fans are convinced that “Actually Romantic” is written about Charli xcx, 33.
“I heard you call me ‘Boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave,” Swift belted at the beginning of the song. “High-fived my ex and then you said you’re glad he ghosted me / Wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face.”
Fans think Swift is referencing Charli’s 2024 track “Sympathy Is a Knife.”
The tune seemingly pointed at Swift’s short-lived romance with Matty Healy.
The English rocker, 36, is a member of The 1975 alongside Charli’s husband George Daniel.
“Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show,” Charli sang. “Fingers crossed behind my back / I hope they break up real quick.”
Taylor goes on to share more thoughts on her unnamed foe in the “Actually Romantic” chorus.
“I really got to hand it to you / No man has ever loved me like you do,” she said. “I didn’t think of you in a long time / But you keep sending me funny valentines / And I know you think it comes off vicious / But it’s precious, adorable / Like a toy chihuahua barking at me from a tiny purse / That’s how much it hurts.”
Lyrics later in the track alluded to Swift’s frenemy talking smack behind the scenes.
“How many times has your boyfriend said: ‘Why are we always talking about her?’” she sang. “You think I’m tacky, baby? / Stop talking dirty to me / It sounded nasty, but it feels like you’re flirting with me / I mind my business, God’s my witness / That I don’t provoke it / It’s kind of making me wet / ‘Cause it’s actually sweet.”
Listeners took to social media to share their theories, surmising that Swift was in fact alluding to Charli.
“Actually romantic is definitely about charli xcx omggg,” one user wrote on X, while a second chimed in, “What happens if I’m a Charli and Taylor fan?”
The Post reached out to Swift and Charli’s reps for comment.
In the “Track by Track Version” of “The Life of a Showgirl” for Amazon Music, Swift opened up about the inspiration behind the song.
“‘Actually Romantic’ is a song about realizing that someone else has kind of had a one-sided adversarial relationship with you that you didn’t know about,” the Grammy winner shared. “And all of a sudden they start doing too much, and they start letting you know that, actually, you’ve been living in their head rent free and you had no idea.”
“It’s presenting itself as them sort of resenting or having a problem with you, but taking that and you just accepting that as love,” continued Swift, “and you just accepting it as attention and affection. How flattering that someone has made you such a big part of their reality and you didn’t even think about this. It’s actually pretty romantic if you really, really think about it.”
But both parties have never mentioned bad blood between one another.
After “Sympathy Is a Knife” was released, Charli said it wasn’t a diss track.
“People are gonna think what they want to think,” she told Vulture in August 2024. “That song is about me and my feelings and my anxiety and the way my brain creates narratives and stories in my head when I feel insecure.”
Swift, meanwhile, praised Charli’s song, sharing at the time, “Her writing is surreal and inventive, always. She just takes a song to places you wouldn’t expect it to go, and she’s been doing it consistently for over a decade. I love to see hard work like that pay off.”
On Tuesday, Swift made history by becoming the first and only female artist to surpass 100 million album sales.
“Congrats to @taylorswift on becoming the first and only female artist in history to surpass 100 million RIAA Certified Album Units!” the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) captioned their Instagram post.
According to the RIAA’s website, Swift sold more than 105 million albums before the “Life of a Showgirl” was even dropped.
Her 2014 album “1989” sold 14 million, while Swift’s 2024 LP, “Tortured Poets Department,” moved 8 million units. “Fearless” sold 11 million, and “Red” also did 8 million.
Last month, Swift announced that the Official Release Party of a Showgirl would take place the weekend her album drops.
“I hereby invite you to a *dazzling* soirée, The Official Release Party of a Showgirl: Oct 3 – Oct 5 only in cinemas!” the Grammy winner told followers on Instagram.
“You’ll get to see the exclusive world premiere of the music video for my new single “The Fate of Ophelia”, along with never-before-seen behind-the-scenes footage of how we made it, cut-by-cut explanations of what inspired this music, and the brand new lyric videos from my new album The Life of a Showgirl ❤️🔥,” added Swift.
The star also encouraged viewers to dress the part and bust a move during the event.
“Looks like it’s time to brush off that Eras Tour outfit or orange cardigan … Tickets are on sale now. Dancing is optional but very much encouraged 💃,” Swift concluded.
In August, Swift announced her latest record while on her now fiancé Travis Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast.
“It feels like kind of energetically how my life has felt,” she said about the album. “And this album is about what was going on behind the scenes in my inner life during [The Eras Tour], which was so exuberant and electric and vibrant.”
Swift added that she wanted to “glamorize all the different aspects of how that tour felt, and that’s how that felt to be at the end of the night when all this has gone down.”
Swift’s album, meanwhile, comes on the heels of her engagement to the Chiefs tight end, 35.
The couple announced their engagement in a joint Instagram post in August.
“Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married,” Swift wrote alongside multiple pictures from their engagement shoot.
Another shot showed off the songstress’s dazzling engagement ring, which Page Six reported is an old mine brilliant-cut diamond in a gold bezel setting that the NFL vet designed himself.
Following their announcement, Kelce’s dad, Ed, shared how his son popped the question.
“He got her out there, they were about to go out to dinner, and he said, ‘Let’s go out and have a glass of wine,’ … they got out there, and that’s when he asked her, and it was beautiful,” he revealed to ABC 5 Cleveland.
Shortly after, Ed received a call from Kelce with the happy news.
“I got a FaceTime call from them, and as soon as I saw the FaceTime, I saw it was Travis, and then I saw Taylor there with him, I knew what they were going to say, and they, you know, let us know,” he added.
“They started FaceTiming me and their mother and her folks to make sure everybody knew. So, to see them together is great.”
Swift and Kelce first went public with their relationship in September 2023.
The football player revealed he tried to give Swift a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it at one of her Eras Tour stops.
Despite being unsuccessful, Kelce shared his interest in the performer on his “New Heights” podcast, and their love story began.
