Why Taylor Swift Fans Think Her New Song 'The Manuscript' Is About Ex John Mayer: Inside the Telling Lyrics

The Tortured Poets Department having a song seemingly about John Mayer was not on our 2024 bingo card!

On Friday, April 19, Taylor Swift surprised fans with the release of a double album — and her supporters are convinced "The Manuscript," the final track in the bonus version titled The Anthology, revisits her infamous past with the "You’re Gonna Live Forever in Me" singer.

In the song, Swift sings about a relationship with a large age gap — something she’s previously referenced in other hit tracks like "Dear John" (also allegedly about Mayer) and "All Too Well" (believed to be about her ex-boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal).

The 14-time Grammy winner notably dated Mayer between 2009 and 2010, when she was 19 and he was 32.

“In the age of him, she wished she was 30 / And made coffee every morning in a Frеnch press / Afterwards she only atе kids’ cereal / And couldn’t sleep unless it was in her mother’s bed,” Swift, 34, details, as she was just a teenager when her heart was broken by Mayer, 46.

Elsewhere in the song, the blonde beauty mentions going on to date "boys who were her own age," seemingly in reference to her relationships with Connor Kennedy, 29, Harry Styles, 30, and Calvin Harris, 40, all of whom she dated after breaking things off with both Mayer and Gyllenhaal, 43.

Another verse in "The Manuscript" appears to discuss the feeling of needing to revisit unhappy times from your past in order to move on with your life in a healthy light.

"Lookin’ backwards / Might be the only way to move forward … And at last / She knew what the agony had been for," sings Swift, who is now happily in a relationship with Travis Kelce.

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As the song comes to an end, fans believe Swift mentions another Mayer breakup song "The Story of Us" with the line: "Now and then I reread the manuscript / But the story isn’t mine anymore."

Mayer isn't the only ex who found himself in headlines after the release of The Tortured Poets Department.

As expected, certain songs seem to tell the tale of her breakup with Joe Alwyn, whom she split from last spring after six years of dating.

Other tunes surprisingly highlight Swift's fling with Matty Healy, who the "Enchanted" singer briefly dated after Alwyn and before Kelce.

One song is even thought to have a whole different meaning than love and breakups, as fans think Swift wrote "thanK you aIMee" about her feud with Kim Kardashian due to the capitalization of her first name in the track's title and several other telling clues.