Taylor Swift has made no secret of the fact anything she or anyone in her orbit posts may contain easter eggs—or visual hints or foreshadows—about her upcoming 18-track album Lover. But fans are now suspecting Swift's friend and collaborator Jack Antonoff posted a photo that may hint the singer will address her sexual assault trial in her new music.
Antonoff shared a series of photos from June, including one of Swift in the recording studio. In another shot from the recording studio, a one dollar bill can be seen on equipment.
Fans believe this may represent or literally be the symbolic $1 in damages Swift was awarded in her sexual assault trial when she counter-sued a radio DJ who she claimed lifted her skirt and grabbed her butt while posing for a photo with her in 2013. That DJ originally sued Swift because he was fired from his job over the incident.
Swift spoke last August about the one-year anniversary of the trial and her victory over the DJ during her Tampa Reputation World Tour concert.
'So, I just went to, just looking back, this exact day a year ago, I was not playing a sold out stadium in Tampa, I was in a courtroom in Denver, Colorado, and honestly, I was there for a sexual assault case, and this day a year ago was the day that the jury decided in my favor and said that they believed me,' Swift told the crowd.
'And I really—I’m not—I don’t want to, I guess I just think about all the people that weren’t believed and people who haven’t been believed and the people who are afraid to speak up because they think they won’t be believed.
'And I just wanted to say that I’m sorry to anyone who ever wasn’t believed because I don’t know what turn my life would take if people didn’t believe me when I said that something had happened to me. And so I guess I just wanted to say that we have so, so, so much further to go, and I’m so grateful to you guys for being there for me during what was a really, really horrible part of my life.'
Swift also wrote about the trial's impact on her in her ELLE essay on 30 things she learned before turning 30, calling the public trial an 'agonising thing' to go through and maintaining that she believes victims. It was her 13th lesson, and 13 is an incredibly important and symbolic number to Swift.
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she's not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.
