Taylor Swift Fans Mourn the Death of ‘Muse’ From Pop Star's ‘Red’ Era
Taylor Swift fans are mourning the loss of one of the pop star's former inspirations: Ethel Kennedy.
The wife of the late Robert F. Kennedy died on Thursday, Oct. 10, of complications after suffering a stroke the previous week. She was 96 years old.
After the news was publicly released, longtime Swifties made the connection between the "Lavender Haze" singer and the Kennedy matriarch, remembering that the pop star had previously referred to the woman as her "muse."
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Several years ago, it was revealed that the 14-time Grammy Award winner's song "Starlight," released as part of her 2012 album, Red, is about Ethel and Robert's relationship—a detail the "Cruel Summer" songstress' fans didn't forget.
"Ethel kennedy passed away? somebody check on 2012 taylor swift," one fan shared on X (formerly Twitter).
"Listening to Starlight (Taylor's Version) for Ethel Kennedy today," another fan added, while a third noted, "rip ethel kennedy, thank u for being taylor swift's muse."
"Is it sad that the first thing I thought when I got the news alert that Ethel Kennedy died was “oh, I should listen to ‘Starlight’," someone else admitted, in part.
"RIP Ethel Kennedy, inspiration (along with Bobby) for one of my favorite Taylor Swift songs, 'Starlight,'" an additional Swiftie wrote.
Ahead of the album's release, Swift spoke with The Wall Street Journal about how the couple inadvertently inspired the track as a result of her searching for inspiration in old photos she discovered.
"I get a lot of style inspiration from the 1960s, so I'll go and look at black and white pictures, and look at [photos from the] '50s and '60s, and I came across this picture of these two kids dancing at a dance," The Tortured Poets Department artist explained. "It immediately made me think of, like, how much fun they must have had that night. It was back in the late '40s."
"I ended up reading underneath that it was Ethel Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. And they were like 17," Swift continued at the time of finding out who it was in the pictures. "So I just kind of wrote that song from that place, not really knowing how they met or anything like that."
The "You Belong With Me" singer did eventually meet Ethel in person, even posing together in photos while attending the Ethel premiere held at the MARC Theatre during the 2012 Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 20, 2012 in Park City, Utah.
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