Denise Welch, the mother of Taylor Swift’s ex-boyfriend Matty Healy, took aim at the pop superstar when she appeared on Bravo TV’s Watch What Happens Live on Thursday.
The 67-year-old English actress and presenter – a Bravo superfan – appeared on the most recent episode of WWHL thanks to a run-in with host Andy Cohen on Loose Women, where he promised to let her come on the show.
She took a cautious tone after host Andy Cohen quizzed her about what it was like when Taylor — who has moved on with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce — released her Tortured Poets Department album in 2024.
Fans have claimed that the 35-year-old singer, who is famous for using her romantic relationships as fodder for her songs, wrote several of the songs on the chart-topping album about her short-lived romance with Healy.
But Welch seemed to accuse Swift’s fans of lashing out at anyone who dares to criticize the hitmaker, even as she takes ultra-personal digs at her exes in her massively popular songs.
In response to Cohen’s question about her reaction to the album, Welch replied: ‘Obviously, on pain of death can I talk about that episode, but being her mother-in-law is a role that I am glad that I lost.’
The confession elicited shocked gasps from the audience members, but Welch quickly tried to tamp them down.
‘Not that I have anything against her at all!’ she said emphatically over the awkward audience chatter.
‘It was just — it was tricky,’ Welch added.
The Celebrity Big Brother then paused before taking her chances speaking about Swift.
Welch seemed to suggested that Swift’s fans police any critical statements about the pop star, who is then free to settle scores via her songs.
‘She — listen, you’re not allowed to say anything, and then she writes a whole album about it,’ Welch said.
But she clarified that her son — the frontman for The 1975 — is taking the aftermath of Swift’s album ‘all in completely good grace.’
Welch also said Healy was ‘very happy with his amazing fiancée Gabriella,’ a model and singer who works under the name Gabbriette, whom she called ‘gorgeous.’
‘So, we’ve moved on,’ Welch added to applause.
Swift and Healy’s 2023 relationship was among her most short-lived, but their mutual admiration and friendship went back years before.
The two reportedly met when Swift attended a 1975 show in LA in November 2014 with her friends Selena Gomez and Ellie Goulding, and she later caught another of the band’s concerts in December of that year with her former friend Karlie Kloss.
In February of 2015, the future Eras Tour star caught up with Healy again at a party where they hung out in the DJ booth with Nick Grimshaw and Goulding.
But the two didn’t appear to come back into each other’s orbits until 2022, when rumors began circulating that the 1975 singer would be popping up on Swift’s album Midnights in a guest spot, which he denied.
However, their turned out to be something to the rumors, as he revealed in November of that year that he collaborate with Swift in the studio, though their work never saw the light of day.
The professional collaboration continued in January of 2023, when Swift made a guest appearance on stage at a 1975 concert.
In April, she was reported to have split from her longtime boyfriend Joe Alwyn, and a month later rumors began swirling that she and Healy were dating.
They confirmed the romance later in May when they were spotted holding hands, and Healy was soon spotted at her Eras Tour concerts and in the studio with Swift.
But if the relationship was years in the making, it came crashing down in little more than the blink of an eye.
Healy was swept up in controversy over offensive accents and crude jokes he made about the rapper Ice Spice on a popular comedy podcast, and Swifties began to harass the songstress online over the relationship, urging her to dumb Healy.
In early June, the two were reported to no longer be together, and less than a year later The Tortured Poets Department dropped, with multiple songs that fans took to be inspired by Swift and Healy’s relationship.
Fans have suggested that the Tortured Poets Department songs loml, I Can Fix Him (No I Really Can), Guilty As Sin? and Fresh Out The Slammer may feature details from her relationship with Healy, though her breakup with Alwyn is also believed to have inspired some of the tunes.
