Harry Styles Wrote “Carolina” About *This* Woman — and It’s Not Taylor Swift
Talk about internet sleuthing! With Harry Styles’ new album coming out last week, there’s been a lot of talk about the singer’s love life and who may or may not have served as his muse. Rumors have been swirling that the singer has a new lady in UK food blogger Tess Ward (who is already being trolled online), further adding fuel to the fire. Now, thanks to some intrepid digging, the woman Styles is singing about in at least one of his songs, “Carolina,” has been found by fans, and it’s not Ward OR his famous ex Swift.
In an interview with UK radio station BBC1, Styles admitted that “Carolina” was about a specific person, saying, “It’s potentially about someone from Carolina.” That clue was one of the first things fans had to go on. He got a little more specific when he participated in an Apple Music Behind the Music documentary, admitting that the subject’s name is actually in the song, and that he is, “a bit f—ed with that one.”
Fans finally put it together that the name in the song belonged to former Carolina resident and current LA college student, “Townes,” who Styles met on a blind date in California a few years ago. While they didn’t end up dating, they had a good enough time that Townes left a major impression on the singer, and he penned the song about her moving from her home to California, singing, “She never saw herself a West Coaster, moved all the way cause Grandma told her, ‘Townes, better swim before you drown.'”
@Harry_Styles This is Townes btw pic.twitter.com/Gs6kwWK69O
— maisie:) (@atloveharryes) May 17, 2017
Styles’ RL inspo has yet to respond to the song, but her friends have been quoted as saying, “The story is as cute as the song is; she thinks it’s adorable, really sweet, but she was really surprised by the gesture.”
Whether or not she capitalizes on her newfound fame, however, her short-lived romance will live on in the form of this hit song. Um, best consolation prize ever for a blind date that didn’t work out in the end?
Have you ever gone on a blind date? Tell us about it @BritandCo!
(h/t Seventeen; photo via Emma McIntyre/Getty)
