Taylor Swift was ‘disappointed’ by former fling Matty Healy’s aggressive online spat with Azealia Banks, claim friends close to the star who said she was ‘shocked’ that he threatened assault.
The 1975 frontman, 35, engaged in yet another fiery back-and-forth with the controversial rapper on Tuesday in which he boasted about wanting to ‘slap’ Azealia after she made public remarks about him and his fiancée Gabbriette Bechtel.
He tweeted: ‘Talk to me like that I’m not gonna side eye you at an awards do I’ll f****** slap you so hard I’ll get a Guinness world record for the highest a rat some bitch calls a wig has ever flown.’
His threat of physical violence towards the female hitmaker sparked outcry, with insiders claiming that for Taylor, it helped to ‘reaffirm’ why their relationship was never more than a brief romance.
‘There is a reason why Taylor didn’t get deeply involved with him after her split from Joe Alwyn,’ a source told DailyMail.com exclusively.
‘She has known Matty a very long time and she had worked with him professionally, but she is no longer in communication with him.
Taylor Swift was ‘disappointed’ by former fling Matty Healy’s aggressive online spat with controversial rapper Azealia Banks, claim friends close to the star
Matty, 35, engaged in a fiery back-and-forth with the controversial rapper in which he boasted about wanting to ‘slap’ her after she made remarks about him and his fiancée Gabbriette Bechtel
‘In no way should a man ever threaten to harm a woman, or anyone else for that matter.’
They continued: ‘He is facing demons clearly. Taylor knows his family as well and everyone just really hopes that he gets the help he needs before it is too late.’
A second source added: ‘Taylor is disappointed by Matty’s recent behavior and it has kind of reaffirmed that moving on from him was the right decision.
‘She was shocked that he threatened to assault Azealia.’
The drama kicked off when Azealia criticized Charlie XCX, the pop superstar fiancée of Matty’s 1975 bandmate George Daniel.
‘Charli used to be sooo pretty. Ugh,’ she wrote.
Matty fired back with the scathing response: ‘All the women you attack seem to be culturally relevant, attractive, divisive and NICE people. I think this makes you jealous cos you’re so talented but everything else about you is a failure. Just rap bro.’
He then came to the defense of his own fiancée, as he ranted: ‘And on that point if I see one little s**t bag twitter barista say ONE thing about my Gabi, EVER, I will use my mental illness to full affect and I will dox and f**k you up. I’m so over pretending to have different standards online cos it’s ’not real’. Well, a f***in slap is.’
His threat of physical violence sparked outcry, with insiders claiming that for Taylor, it helped to ‘reaffirm’ why their relationship was never more than a brief romance
‘There is a reason why Taylor didn’t get deeply involved with him after her split from Joe Alwyn ,’ a source told DailyMail.com exclusively.
However, an unimpressed Azealia responded by insulting both Gabriette and Matty, as she savagely replied: ‘The b***h look[s] like Frankenstein to me. You both look like you share needles. Lmao.’
An enraged Matty then issued a wildly dramatic threat, tweeting: ‘Talk to me like that I’m not gonna side eye you at an awards do I’ll f******slap you so hard I’ll get a Guiness world record for the highest a rat some bitch calls a wig has ever flown.’
Recognizing the inappropriate nature of his outburst, the singer quickly backtracked, and wrote: ‘Nah I can’t be saying I’m gonna hit a girl that’s insane I’m sorry. You just can’t keep being so mean about my mates and my mrs it’s really hurtful gets me well defensive.’
After Azealia threatened to sue Matty over his threat of physical violence, he later issued a groveling apology on the Reddit page for The 1975, telling fans he had ‘let himself down’ and that he felt ‘gross’ for having ‘acted violent.’
He wrote: ‘What a bad day, I really let myself down. I have worked so hard to move past these impulsive self destructive and honestly quite volatile outbursts I have.
‘I’m constantly making trouble for myself for no reason, I come back to social media after depressive episodes (which is NOT an excuse) because I often become sober, so as an addict when I’m not using I pick up social media my new way of “consuming” and changing how I feel.
‘I just feel dreadful about how I acted violent – I think Azealia and all obvious flawed people all deep down have a heart and I hate that I have contributed to her mental fragility. She’s a human.
‘This cultural discourse has become so violent in general. I don’t wanna act like I regret who I am or who have been. But Tbh at this point I feel gross even having said anything negative ever about anything – if it’s contributed to this culture.’
Recognizing the inappropriate nature of his outburst, Matty quickly backtracked on his comments and apologized to fans for his words
Matty and Gabbriette have been linked since September 2023, when they were spotted packing on the PDA in New York City, shortly after his well-publicized split from Taylor Swift in June that year.
The couple went on to announce their engagement in June 2024 after a whirlwind nine month romance, with Gabbriette showing off her black diamond ring on Instagram.
Despite the short relationship Taylor shared with Matty, the musician became the surprising focus on a number of songs on her latest album The Tortured Poets Department, which dropped in April.
Taylor, who is dating Travis Kelce, is widely believed to take aim at him in the songs The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived and Fortnight (feat. Post Malone) among others, prompting renewed fan scrutiny of the period they dated.
Weeks later, Matty seemingly made a sly dig towards the hitmaker’s choice to write songs about her past romances, calling it such ‘an obvious thing to draw from,’ that he finds ‘not interesting.’
Appearing on Joshua Citarella’s podcast Doomscroll, Matty declared he didn’t want to write about his flings that he’s ‘become known for.’
He said: ‘Last year I became a way more well-known public figure for loads of different reasons. The only reason that I was interested in is kind of like, what I was doing.
‘So I think that a lot of artists, they become very interested in their lore, or they become interested in the things that have happened outside of their art that people know about, and they want to address that, and fair enough.’
He subsequently deleted the threatening tweet, acknowledging it ‘was not cool even if I was angry’
Azealia had made unkind comments about Matty and his fiancée Gabbriette which prompted Matty to issue his wildly dramatic threat
The drama unfolded when Azealia first criticized Charli XCX, pop superstar and fiancée of Matty’s 1975 bandmate George Daniel
He went on: ‘Maybe on my first record, when it was very much a series of journal entries, like little bits of heartache, I used to write about relationships a lot more and stuff like that.
‘But honestly I would kind of just be lying if I made a record about, I don’t know, all the stuff that was said about me or my casual romantic liaisons or whatever it may be, that I’ve kind of become known for just because I was famous.’
Subtly hitting out at artists who use their romances for inspiration, he added: ‘I think that that’s an obvious thing to draw from and I’m just not interested in it. And I think the maintenance of the status quo is something that I always like fight against.
‘So, the idea of making a record about something that personally happened to me, that by the time I put it out is gonna be like two years old. I see people doing that as well, and it’s not interesting.’
Taylor has famously written a number of songs that are believed to be about her past romantic partners, including Harry Styles, Jake Gyllenhaal, John Mayer and Joe Jonas.
Her 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department, made references to current boyfriend Travis Kelce, as well as exes Joe and Matty.