Taylor Swift’s Song ‘But Daddy, I Love Him’ Isn’t About What You Think

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Sleuthing Swifties have figured out the inspiration behind one of Taylor Swift’s most buzzed-about tracks on The Tortured Poets Department—and it’s much more of a throwback than many fans realized. While the prevailing theory among Swifties has been that “But Daddy, I Love Him” is about her stint dating polarizing 1975 frontman Matty Healy, the “Cruel Summer” singer previously revealed that the track’s roots go back much earlier than that.

In a resurfaced throwback interview with PopSugar that quickly made the rounds on TikTok, Swift revealed that she actually screamed “But daddy, I love him!” to her father, Scott, in an argument that happened 16 years before her latest album was released.

In the 2008 interview, a then 19-year-old Swift shared that she and her parents didn’t see eye to eye on her dating life while discussing the inspiration behind her hit song “Love Story.” “This song, I wrote it right after my one epic teenage tantrum that I ever threw in my whole life,” she said of the Fearless track.

GETTY IMAGES

“And I remember screaming something like ‘But daddy, I love him!’ and running out and storming into my room and slamming the door and then I sat down on the floor and wrote this song,” she remembered.

“But Daddy, I Love Him”–which features defiant lyrics about loving her “wild boy” despite the disapproval of her parents and “people in town”–does share some similarities to “Love Story.” The track, which was off of Swift’s second album, tells the story of a young Juliet who’s determined to marry her Romeo despite opposition, and finally gets her father’s blessing in the end.

Fans are still undecided about whether “But Daddy, I Love Him” is the grown-up version of “Love Story,” or, considering its early inspiration, about a combination of exes that Swift’s dated over the years that she’s gotten criticized for.

GETTY IMAGES

Still, it’s worth noting that, just like “Love Story,” “But Daddy, I Love Him” ends on a positive note with her dad’s approval—a seeming reference to her current relationship with Travis Kelce.

“Now I’m dancing in my dress in the sun and/Even my daddy just loves him,” she sings in the last few lines of the song. “Time, doesn’t it give some perspective/No, you can’t come to the wedding/I know he’s crazy, but he’s the one that I want.”