Inside Taylor Swift's Relationship With Her Brother Austin
The year 2023 may be Taylor Swift's most epic yet. From dominating the box office with "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" to helming one of the highest-grossing tours of all time to being named Apple Music's artist of the year to drawing a legion of fans to NFL games, the pop superstar seems all but unstoppable.
But before she was one of the most famous people on the planet, Taylor Swift was a young girl with dreams of music stardom living on a Christmas tree farm. And one of the people who has been in her corner through all of the highs and lows of her career? Why, that would be her younger brother, Austin Swift. In recent years, Austin, who is two years Taylor's junior, has become a public figure as well, partly because of his sister but also because of his own career. And sure, there have been some unconfirmed rumors and speculative whispers about Austin supposedly feeling like he's stuck in the shadow of his big sis, but as far as we can tell, there's not a drop of bad blood between the brother-sister duo.
So, what is the siblings' relationship like today? Let's take a look at Taylor Swift and Austin Swift's dynamic and a peek into their shared history.
The Swift kids' sibling connection is strong
Taylor Swift's level of celebrity and success cannot be overstated, but at the end of the day, neither she nor her brother have forgotten where they came from. In 2015, Austin Swift attended the MTV Video Music Awards and watched his big sister rack up the awards. Following the show, Lorde witnessed a beyond charming interaction between the siblings at an afterparty. In a since-deleted post on X (via Billboard), the "Ribs" singer wrote, "at the after party austin leaned down from the banquette heaving with models in vip to whisper in taylor's ear 'we grew up on a FARM!!'" Evidently, Austin was able to take a step back in the moment to really absorb what their lives once were and what they had become.
In addition to being there for each other at events, the brother-sister pair sure stand by each other. When Taylor went through her breakup with ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn in 2023, it was reported that Austin unfollowed him on Instagram. And when Kanye West released his infamous single "Famous" in 2016, Austin made it clear he wasn't on board with the lyrics about his sister. After the song came out, the younger Swift shared on Instagram that he'd tossed his Yeezys in the trash.
The Swift kids' childhoods were pretty unique because of Taylor's budding career
There are a lot of unique aspects of the Swift siblings' upbringing. As Taylor Swift's fans know, she and her brother, Austin Swift, spent their first few years on a Christmas tree farm in Reading, Pennsylvania. Eventually, however, there was a significant change of scenery: When Taylor was a teenager and began to take her music career more seriously, the family moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to support her. As Austin recalled to People years later, he watched her drop off rejected demo after rejected demo without ever giving up. He also said she had the same level of enthusiasm then as she does now.
Her career obviously took off, and after moving, Taylor shot the "You Belong With Me," music video. Parts of the video, including the scene where Taylor's character shows up to the dance, were shot in Pope John Paul II High School. The Henderson, Tennessee, prep school is Austin's alma mater.
In a 2009 profile of Taylor, Rolling Stone noted that the singer still lived at home at the time — yes, even after she released her smash sophomore album, "Fearless." Evidently, Austin didn't let his sister's fame get in the way of his studies: According to the outlet, he was an "academic overachiever" and a successful athlete. What's more, he showed what a dependable sibling he is when he jumpstarted Taylor's car during the interview.
Taylor Swift and Austin Swift support each other's careers
Austin Swift's love of film began when he was still a kid. So, when it was time to head off to college, he decided to study film at the University of Notre Dame. As he told People, he was officially bitten by the acting bug while working on a play called "Six Characters in Search of an Author." And since then, he's made a nice career for himself — and of course, Taylor Swift is a big fan of his work. In 2020, Taylor took to Facebook to not only celebrate National Siblings' Day, but to promote her sibling's latest project: "My brother Austin Swift is one of my best pals, and I'm really proud of him because he's in a film that came out today called We Summon The Darkness (which he also co-produced)."
And he supports Taylor right back! Austin doesn't post on his Instagram often, but he does have a few heartfelt posts about his sister. "It is a singularly beautiful thing to see magic right in front of your eyes," he wrote of his sister on her 29th birthday. When "evermore" was released, he posted the album's cover with a caption about his sister's work. "As a brother and friend I couldn't be more proud, as a lifelong fan I am thrilled beyond words, as a human being I am simply dumbfounded at this level of artistry and depth of insight into what it is to love and to lose and to simply exist," the caption read.
Austin Swift has worked on some of Taylor Swift's projects
Some siblings would struggle with working together. That's not the case for Taylor Swift and Austin Swift. For starters, Austin has inspired some of Taylor's earliest lyrics. In "The Best Day," she sings "God smiles on my little brother; inside and out, he's better than I am"; In "Never Grow Up" she references her "little brother's favorite songs."
And since then, Taylor and Austin's careers have overlapped multiple times. Austin was involved in the creation of the music videos for Taylor's "Christmas Tree Farm" and "I Bet You Think About Me (Taylor's Version)," the latter of which was nominated for American Country Music video of the year in 2022. He was also an executive producer on the film "Folklore: The Long Pond Sessions," which followed Taylor as she created the album "folklore" with Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner in her recording studio.
"I was so lucky to get to work with Blake [Lively], Taylor, and the entire amazing team behind the video for 'I Bet You Think About Me' and now I am so proud and thankful that we've been nominated for the ACM award for video of the year! (I am also thankful for the cake nom I had after wrap)," Austin wrote in an Instagram post.
Austin Swift has said he looks up to his sister
Like a lot of younger siblings, Austin Swift looks up to his big sister — and since they are working in industries that overlap, he has gotten the chance to learn about his work through a special lens. In 2016, Austin told People that watching his sister put her nose to the grindstone at a young age and become massively successful shaped him in a major way. "That's always going to be bedrock for who I am and who I want to be," he said. In a 2017 chat with Vanity Fair, Austin remarked on how much he has always admired his superstar sibling's tenacity. "She found singing, and I knew from very early on that that was her direction. She was never going to quit; that was her thing, that was her life . . . and I was always a little bit, you know, doing this, doing that," he said.
Since his days taking photos of Taylor Swift backstage — and sometimes giving her that brotherly treatment that anyone with a sibling knows — he's had the chance to work on becoming successful himself. Besides the projects he's worked on for his sister, he has also appeared in "I.T." with Pierce Brosnan, "Live by the Night" with Ben Affleck, and "Cover Versions" with Drake Bell and Debby Ryan. He also co-produced the latter film. What's more, during college, he interned for Lionsgate.
Taylor Swift is the type of big sister to offer her brother advice
Many younger siblings look up to their older siblings because they are basically all knowing (or at least they act like it). But if anyone is qualified to give their younger sibling a word of advice about the industry, it's Taylor Swift. As Austin Swift said in his aforementioned Vanity Fair interview, his sister showed him how important respect is in show business. "You just respect everyone's time, everyone that you're working with. They're all there, it's all their lives, and you need to put the work in to be worth that," he said.
Staying motivated in a competitive career path can be tough, and Austin said he's had his moments of self-doubt. Apparently, Taylor won't allow that. "[I get] a lot of advice in all aspects, but I think the best advice I get from Taylor is that she says I can do things — in the sense that a lot of times I'm more reserved and cautious and she's like, 'You can do it, you can handle it,'" Austin told ET.
That mindset undoubtedly came in handy when Austin made his stage debut at Notre Dame. "I started staying after rehearsals every night and running the whole play by myself, over and over, acting every part until the sun came up," he recalled to People in 2018. "By opening day, it was a different play and I felt like I was a different person."
The siblings have faced family struggles together
In 2015, Taylor Swift shared with the world that her mother, Andrea Swift, had been diagnosed with cancer (she didn't specify what kind). Taylor's brother, Austin Swift, was still in college at the time. Fortunately, the community he'd forged at Notre Dame proved to be a tremendous support system. "People were there for me and it transformed what could have been a very lonely, impossible time. I'll never forget that," he told People in 2016.
In a 2019 Elle feature, Taylor shared that her mom's health put things into perspective in a big way, and she learned to let go of the little things a lot easier. The singer also revealed that her dad, Scott Swift, had cancer at some point. And in 2020, Taylor's mom was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which inspired her song "Soon You'll Get Better."
In addition to grappling with their parents' multiple health issues, Taylor and Austin may have also leaned on one another while their mom and dad went through marital issues. Though this has not been confirmed, it's long been rumored that Scott and Andrea Swift are divorced. In 2012, Star (via Radar) reported that they'd separated the year prior and supposedly stopped wearing their rings.
Taylor isn't the only Swift with a Love Story
While Taylor Swift may be the sibling writing love songs about her famous beaus, she's not the only Swift sibling who has been linked to public figures. In September 2022, Austin Swift was first spotted out and about in New York with model Sydney Ness. The two were photographed walking hand-in-hand.
Like Austin, Sydney happens to be related to a musician: Her brother is Sam Ness, an Americana/folk singer with a small following on Spotify. Seemingly, Taylor gets along with her brother's girlfriend and has even hung out with her on a few occasions. For starters, Sydney was at the Fourth of July party that Taylor hosts at her Rhode Island home every year in 2022. Taylor even shared a snap on Instagram that she took with the Haim sisters, Selena Gomez, Ashley Avignone, and Sydney. "Happy belated Independence Day from your local neighborhood independent girlies," the songstress wrote.
On October 1, 2023, Austin and Sydney were seen in a rare public appearance with Taylor at the Kansas City Chiefs game. Of course, they were there to cheer on Taylor's beau Travis Kelce while his team played against the New York Jets. Along with Ryan Reynolds and Brittany Mahomes, the couple took in the game from a private suite in MetLife Stadium, where the Chiefs took home the win. (Yes, that is Sydney and Austin standing in the back row in that photograph of the star-studded suite.)
The Swifts have actually been to a few football games together
The Chiefs game in 2023 wasn't the only football game the Swift siblings have been seen attending together. When Austin Swift was a freshman at the University of Notre Dame, he and went to the opening game of the 2010 season with besties Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez. To show their support for Austin's school, the pair of pop stars arrived at the game in Notre Dame jackets and visors.
As Swift shared in a 2011 E! special (via OK! magazine), the celebrity best friends believed they would be able to fly under the radar and enjoy the game like any other college student, but found that their show of school spirit made them stand out more than they expected. They were eventually moved to the sidelines of the field to watch Taylor's brother's team win against Purdue.
While the siblings may not post a ton of photos when they are together like she often does with her celebrity friends, it's safe to say he is a significant part of her social life. Austin clearly spends a lot of time with Taylor, which is especially impressive when she's on tour. As many probably would expect, he was seen by fans at the opening night of The Eras Tour in Glendale, Arizona, back in March 2023. So she went to one stadium to see his school win in 2010, and he went to another to see one of her wins 13 years later.