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Taylor Swift Just Confirmed That Major “Betty” Theory

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Swifties would claim that Taylor Swift is the queen of several things, but there's no denying that hiding cryptic messages in her music is one of them. Each time she releases an album, her lyrics send fans into a frenzy of Easter-egg hunting to get to the bottom of the music's meaning. Since Folklore's release on July 24th, several songs have spurred said sleuthing, but one in particular felt too easy to crack. And now, Swift herself has confirmed that fans' theory about "Betty" was correct.

The 14th track on Folklore, titled "Betty," tells the story of a teenage love triangle involving three characters: Betty (duh), James, and Inez. True Swifties quickly realized that James and Inez are the names of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynold's oldest daughters, but the famous couple had yet to reveal the name of their third daughter, who was born this past January. The obvious conclusion to draw here is that Swift used her longtime pals' three children's names as the characters in "Betty." Well, in a rare turn of events, Swift confirmed that theory in a radio interview.

While introducing "Betty" on Country Radio, Swift revealed the backstory to her lyrics, and—drum roll, please—said, "I named all the characters in this story after my friend’s kids."

So there you have it, Swifties: Blake Lively and Ryan Reynold's third daughter is indeed named Betty. We just hope Tay asked their permission before revealing that news to the entire world. You can watch the lyric video for "Betty" below.

Now can Swift do a deep dive into explaining how "Betty", "August" and "Cardigan" are all connected? Her lyrical gymnastics still have us a little confused there. Off we go to sing "Betty" for the rest of the day.