Matty Healy’s mum Denise Welch jokes she ‘wasn’t aware’ of new Taylor Swift album: ‘I wish her all the best’

Matty Healy’s mother Denise Welch is keeping mum when it comes to Taylor Swift’s latest album, joking that she “wasn’t aware” that the pop superstar has a new record out.

Welch, 65, is well-known as an actor on the long-running British soaps Coronation Street and Hollyoaks. She is also one of the regular panelists on talk show Loose Women.

Swift’s album The Tortured Poets Department, which has broken several records since its release on 19 April, has been widely reported to have been heavily inspired by the singer’s brief relationship with Healy, the frontman of The 1975.

Earlier today (25 April), Welch was asked by Loose Women co-host Nadia Sawalha whether she had heard the new album.

“I wasn’t aware she had an album out at all,” Welch responded, to laughter from the studio audience. “I haven’t heard anything about it.”

Welch added: “Anyway, I wish her all the best.”

Healy himself was similarly tight-lipped when asked yesterday about his opinion of Swift’s “diss track” about him.

After Entertainment Tonight enquired about his thoughts on the song, Healy responded: “My diss track? I haven’t really listened to that much of it, but I’m sure it’s good.”

Songs such as “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived”, “But Daddy I Love Him”, “Fresh Out the Slammer” and “My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys” have all been interpreted to be about Healy.

Swift and Healy’s relationship sparked consternation from Swifties (Swift fans) who objected to Healy’s long string of controversies, including a podcast in which he engaged with a number of derogatory remarks about rapper Ice Spice, as well as women and Japanese people.

Healy apologised to Ice Spice in April 2023, saying he didn’t want to be “perceived as, like, kind of mean-hearted”. Soon after this, Swift announced a collaboration with Ice Spice for a remix of her song “Karma”, which some critics and fans claimed was “damage control” for Healy’s comments.

There are several clues scattered throughout songs on The Tortured Poets Department that indicate they are about Healy.

On “Guilty as Sin?” Swift sings about “fatal fantasies” for someone in her past who sends her the 1989 song “The Downtown Lights” by Scottish band The Blue Nile.

Healy has mentioned before that The Blue Nile is his “favourite band of all time” and that The 1975’s song “Love It If We Made It” was inspired by “The Downtown Lights.”

Read more about how Taylor Swift takes aim at Matty Healy on ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ here.