In a February 2023 podcast conversation, Matty Healy discussed an episode involving pornography after the hosts raised it. The remarks resurfaced in May, drawing criticism from some Taylor Swift fans. But the contemporaneous reports did not establish either that Healy had a lasting “fetish” or that Swift and Healy had confirmed they were dating.
What did Matty Healy say about the porn video?
On The Adam Friedland Show in February 2023, hosts Adam Friedland and Nick Mullen raised an account of an earlier incident: Friedland and a woman had allegedly returned to Healy’s home to retrieve a water bottle and found him watching pornography. PerthNow’s May 17 report said Friedland identified the site as Ghetto Gaggers, whose videos it described as featuring humiliation and brutalization of mostly Black women. The account of the earlier encounter came from the hosts; Healy’s reported remarks do not independently verify every detail.
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PerthNow quoted Healy describing what he said was on the television: “I was, like, dressed as ‘guy who is jacking off’, so I had, like, an untucked shirt. As you said, I think it was like Ghetto Gaggers was on the TV. It’s just somebody just getting, like, brutalised.” The PerthNow report, published May 17, 2023, described the clip as recirculating online.
The Los Angeles Times also covered the remarks, describing Healy joking about a video of a woman being “brutalized” on a pornography website that prominently features Black women. Its May 24 article placed the episode amid broader criticism of the podcast appearance, including comments about rapper Ice Spice. Neither account establishes a persistent sexual preference, so the headline word “fetish” should not be read as a verified psychological or clinical description. See the Los Angeles Times coverage.
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Were Taylor Swift and Matty Healy confirmed to be dating?
No—not in the contemporaneous reporting cited here. The Los Angeles Times said Healy had been romantically linked to Swift since early May 2023 and explicitly noted that neither had confirmed a relationship. British Vogue likewise described it as a rumored relationship in its May 19, 2023 account. That makes “new beau” an unconfirmed characterization, not an established fact in those reports.
Why did some Swift fans criticize the rumored association?
PerthNow reported that many Swift fans were calling for her to end the rumored relationship after the clip circulated. The Los Angeles Times also documented criticism of Swift’s association with Healy and fan reaction to her collaboration with Ice Spice. These reports establish visible criticism, not the views of every Swift fan or a representative measure of how widespread the anger was.
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What did Healy say later about provoking fans?
In a May 29, 2023 report, The Independent said Healy was asked in a New Yorker interview whether he had deliberately baited fans during the podcast appearance. He replied, “A little bit.” The Independent also reported that he later dismissed the seriousness of the backlash. That exchange concerned provoking fans and the reaction; it was not reported as an apology for the porn discussion. Read The Independent’s account.
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