Taylor Swift just put into words a fear most single people never say aloud.

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It's been a huge year for one Taylor Swift.

The 'Fate of Ophelia' singer began dating NFL star, Travis Kelce, in 2023 and they announced their engagement in August.

This came just one month after Swift finally gained full ownership of the master recordings for her first six albums. In May, she purchased the masters directly from Shamrock Capital, which had previously acquired them from Scooter Braun.

The 35-year-old reflected on her huge year in a chat on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Colbert congratulated Swift for getting engaged and finally buying back her music masters in 2025. "Pretty good year!" the host said.

The pop star wiped a tear from her cheek before she shared a rare insight into her inner pain.

Watch the moment below. Post continues after video.

"Getting engaged to the love of my life, getting all my music back — those two things just never could have happened," she said, before repeating that sentence again.

"They just never could have happened. It wasn't like [I was thinking], 'it was just a matter of time'. Both of those things could have just never arrived in my life. I'm so grateful for both of those things happening."

Swift then thanked her fans as she admitted that without the profits made from her groundbreaking Eras Tour, she wouldn't have been able to afford to buy back her masters.

But it was her comment on how she had accepted that finding "the love of her life" might "never have happened" that struck me.

At this stage, Swift is almost as known for her chaotic love life as she is for her incredible music. She has famously dated a number of celebs, with those relationships and breakups often inspiring her critically acclaimed songs.

Her ex-boyfriends include Joe Jonas, Tom Hiddleston and Calvin Harris, as well as brief romances with the likes of Matty Healy, Taylor Lautner, Jake Gyllenhaal, John Mayer and Harry Styles.

It's been a long, winding road to Travis. Image: Getty.

Of course, her longest relationship was with actor Joe Alwyn, which lasted for six years and inspired multiple albums — and many fans assumed that Alwyn was 'end game' (and Taylor sang a song about that exact assumption in 2017).

For Swift to be so honest in this interview, sharing that she had thought that she might never find her person, or the "love of her life", is something a lot of single people will relate to.

But they would rarely say aloud.

Instead, single people are relegated to recycling the kinds of optimistic sentiments like 'I'm still hopeful', 'I'm sure they're still out there' or 'I'll keep on trying'.

Because what is the alternative?

Like Swift obviously once pondered, what if we never find that person? What if not everyone is lucky enough to find love in their lifetime?

If you're not optimistic about your dating life, it can be perceived as defeatist, but often, it's just single people being realistic.

For a single person, projecting optimism can be a necessary shield to avoid the pity, judgment or worse… dating advice from your coupled-up friends.

This all harks back to people framing singleness as a temporary state — a passing holding pattern before a better, coupled life begins.

When no one verbalises that life can go on without finding your person, it becomes all the more isolating for single people to harbour these thoughts in silence.

So thank you, Taylor Swift, for sharing something single people often struggle with.

More of this, please and thank you!

Feature image: CBS.