Fans can't get enough of Taylor Swift's re-release of "Red," her fourth album, and now, some think that a new addition to one song may reveal the reason behind the singer's breakup with actor Jake Gyllenhaal.
Swift and Gyllenhaal dated for about three months 11 years ago. The couple were first seen together in October 2010 but reportedly broke up by January 2011. "Red" was later released in 2012.
There's speculation now that the age gap between the couple — Swift was 20 and Gyllenhaal was 29 at the time — is part of the reason they broke up.
The theorizing began after Swift released a new, 10-minute version of the song "All Too Well." The song was updated with new lyrics, including one line that references an age gap between the song's main character and another person.
"They say all's well that ends well/ but I'm in a new hell every time/ You double-cross my mind," Swift sang. "You said if we had been closer in age/ maybe it would have been fine/ And that made me want to die."
Another new line, later in the song, referred to a preference for age gaps as a "punchline" to a joke.
"And I was never good at telling jokes/ but the punchline goes: 'I'll get older, but your lovers stay my age,''" Swift sang.
Swift also references turning 21 in the song and sings about waiting at a door, but never having one's object of affection show up.
Many quickly weighed in on the new lyrics on social media.
"just read the lyrics to 'all too well' 10 min version and i feel GUTTED. how was jake gyllenhaal the WORST boyfriend of all time yet still had the AUDACITY to blame their breakup on the age difference ??? as if HE wasn’t the CHILDISH one out of them ??? the nerve men have my gosh," tweeted one fan.
just read the lyrics to “all too well” 10 min version and i feel GUTTED. how was jake gyllenhaal the WORST boyfriend of all time yet still had the AUDACITY to blame their breakup on the age difference ??? as if HE wasn’t the CHILDISH one out of them ??? the nerve men have my gosh
— suk⁷ 🌱 RED tv day (@namverse) November 12, 2021
"jake gyllenhaal listening to the 10 minutes version of all too well realizing 21 taylor called him out for the future 'I'll get older but your lovers stay my age,'” commented another alongside a photo of Gyllenhaal with his eyes wide open.
"I was thinking it was weird that taylor cast actors with an 11 year age gap in the all too well short film and then I remembered jake gyllenhaal was 30 and taylor was 21 when they dated :’) she is coming for his NECK," wrote another.
I was thinking it was weird that taylor cast actors with an 11 year age gap in the all too well short film and then I remembered jake gyllenhaal was 30 and taylor was 21 when they dated :’) she is coming for his NECK pic.twitter.com/sQbomKaV0a
— jenn (taylor’s version)🧣 (@wenniferjiggins) November 5, 2021
Ever since "Red" was first released in 2012, there's been speculation that "All Too Well" is about the actor. The song is about a road trip to upstate New York, and one original lyric mentions leaving a scarf behind "at your sister's house." Those lyrics still appear in the new version of the song.
"Imagine if Jake Gyllenhaal had just given Taylor Swift back her scarf." a Twitter user wrote.
Imagine if Jake Gyllenhaal had just given Taylor Swift back her scarf.
— Alex Goldschmidt (@alexandergold) November 12, 2021
Eagle-eyed fans previously connected the lyric to a photo of Swift and Gyllenhaal on a walk together. In a 2017 appearance on "Watch What Happens Live!" with Andy Cohen, Gyllenhaal's sister, Maggie Gyllenhaal, said that she was "in the dark" about the mysterious accessory.
"I never understood why everybody asked me about this scarf. ... It's totally possible, I don't know," Maggie Gyllenhaal said at the time.
Swift said during an appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" Thursday that she wrote the longer version of "All Too Well" at rehearsal when she was 21.
"I showed up for rehearsals and I just was really upset and sad and everybody could tell — it was like really like not fun to be around me that day," she explained. "And so I started playing guitar and just kind of playing the same four chords over and over again ... The band joined in and I started ad-libbing what I was going through ... it went on and the song kept building and building and building in intensity."
Swift said that the final song was an "absurd length" so it was cut down for the initial "Red" release. When it came time to work on the re-release though, she decided to replace the track with the original 10-minute version.
Swift has been re-recording several of her albums since a public feud with Scooter Braun, an executive at her former label, Big Machine Records.
Fans of "All Too Well" and those looking for more answers from the singer still have something to look forward to. On Friday at 7 p.m. ET, Swift will release on YouTube a short film based on "All Too Well" starring Sadie Sink and Dylan O'Brien. The short film, she told Fallon, will be chock-full of Easter eggs.
