The Taylor Swift Charli XCX Diss Track Is Real And Puts Her Kim K Feud To Shame

Mere hours before Taylor Swift's "Life of a Showgirl" was officially released on October 3, 2025, a leak of song lyrics began doing the rounds online, and there was one song in particular that fans were interested in reading into for hidden meanings.That'd be "Actually Romantic," which they believed was a brutal diss to Charli XCX. A few hours later, the actual album came out — and yes, the track was real.

One of the major reasons why so many believed "Actually Romantic" was a jab at Charli was because of the title. As "Brat" fans will remember, "Everything is romantic" was one of the songs on Charli's 2024 album. While the title alone doesn't seem to be that brutal, the blow came from the opening lyrics, which many believed were a direct hit. First, there was the line that the adversary in question supposedly "high-fived my ex and then you said you're glad he ghosted me." The ex in question wasn't named, but Matty Healy and Charli are known to be close. (Also, in case you don't know much about Charli's love life, she's married to the drummer of Healy's band, The 1975, and has even referred to the singer as a brother figure ). In other words, the possibility of chats taking place about his split from Swift are pretty good. However, there's more. Possibly one of the biggest aha moments Swifties experienced came from the line that the subject of her song supposedly "wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face." Ding ding ding.

Charli's song "Sympathy is a knife" saw the singer address how uncomfortable and anxious it made her to see a certain girl backstage at her then-boyfriend's shows and say, "Fingers crossed behind my back, I hope they break up quick." Many believed the song to be about Swift, despite Charli debunking that to Vulture. Say it with us: Oop. 

Taylor Swift isn't exactly a novice when it comes to diss tracks (hello, "thanK you aIMee"), so we wouldn't rule out the possibility of "Actually Romantic" being a direct dig at Charli XCX. After all, "Actually Romantic" takes jabs at a girl who is evidently obsessed with her to the point of her boyfriend asking her to stop. And in "Sympathy is a knife," Charli made specific reference to her then-boyfriend George Daniel telling her of her insecurity about the subject in her song, "I'm just paranoid."

That said, it's also worth noting that Swift has spoken about creating characters for each of her albums. Back in 2015, she told GQ that "Blank Space" was a satirical take on the version of herself the media had created. As for how that ties in to "Actually Romantic," there's a good chance she was once again creating a character to respond to Charli's anxieties in "Sympathy is a knife." After all, Charli made it known in a TikTok video that "Brat" in general dealt with the unrealistic expectations put on women in the music industry. "You are pitted against your peers but also expected to be best friends with every single person constantly, and if you're not, you're, like, deemed a bad feminist," she said at the time. If Swift's latest iteration is centered on what it means to be a woman in showbiz, "Actually Romantic" kind of plays directly into that. 

It's also worth noting that in wake of all the excitement surrounding "Brat" (and the rumors that "Sympathy is a knife" was about her), Swift told Vulture she was a fan of Charli, calling her songwriting "surreal and inventive." TBH, it sounds like these two showgirls inspire each other, and we're here for it.