Jake Gyllenhaal took a stroll down memory lane sans maple lattes after inadvertently inviting Taylor Swift fans to swarm his social media.
The “Spider-Man: Far From Home” actor shared an adorable throwback photo of himself as a young kid wearing glasses on Instagram Monday, which opened the floodgates for Swifties to relitigate his short-lived and heavily publicised romance with the pop star.
The onetime couple briefly dated for a few months at the end of 2010, generating photos of the two walking arm-in-arm that splashed across the tabloids for weeks. A snap of them cuddling up while holding the peak-fall beverage long outlasted their actual relationship.
“I’ve worn my glasses ever since I parted my hair meticulously with gel (see above),” Gyllenhaal captioned the old photo, directing followers’ attention to the nonprofit New Eyes, which provides eyewear for communities in need.
Now why did Swift fans target this photo, specifically? Well, buckle in.
Swift’s 2012 ballad “All Too Well” from her album “Red” ― perhaps her most-celebrated song to date ― has long been rumored to be about the demise of her romance with Gyllenhaal.
The pop star seldom reveals the inspirations for her songs, including this one, but fans have zeroed in on certain lyrics ― mainly a scarf Swift sings about leaving at her lover’s “sister’s house” that was never returned.
Swift spent Thanksgiving that year at the home of Gyllenhaal’s sister Maggie in Brooklyn, New York, during the height of their romance, leading fans to suspect she is the sister in question.
Further, a secret message reading “maple lattes” was written in the album notes containing the song’s lyrics, per Genius, presumably referencing the couple’s penchant for the beverage, which they enjoyed on one of their many coffee dates.
In the song, Swift describes viewing an old photo album containing a picture of her boyfriend as a “little kid with glasses,” which, of course, leads us back to Monday’s Instagram.
As soon as Gyllenhaal shared the photo, the comments started rolling in, with some fans even posting the lyrics to “All Too Well” in their entirety.
“You used to be a little kid with glasses in a twin sized bed,” one person wrote in the comment. Another demanded that he “give Taylor Swift her scarf back.”
“I’ll be honest mate you set yourself up for this one,” added someone else.
“All I hear is all too well when I look at this,” a different follower wrote.
“u posted this pic and thought that the swifties would do nothing???? mistake,” one fan said in a separate comment.
The remarks continued to flood the post well into Tuesday afternoon. Still, it’s highly unlikely that Gyllenhaal will address the discourse, given his previous reluctance to publicly discuss his relationship with Swift.
When asked about their romance in 2017, the actor shut down an interviewer by firmly stating that he preferred to “not talk about my personal life.”
Maggie Gyllenhaal, though, was a bit more open when she was asked about the scarf in question that same year.
“I never understood why everybody asked me about this scarf,” she said on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.” “What is this?”
Gyllenhaal went onto say that she was “in the dark” about the accessory, but conceded it was “totally possible” that it might be in her possession.