Matty Healy first caught my attention when I stumbled into a cramped Manchester club back in 2013. The 1975 hadn’t blown up quite yet, and there was something magnetic about the way Healy prowled the stage – lanky, leather-clad, the kind of charisma that was as awkward as it was electric. I remember thinking, “This kid’s a mess, but he’s fascinating.” A decade later, Healy is still just as compelling, but he’s dragged that beautiful chaos with him onto much bigger stages.
Growing up as the son of actors Denise Welch and Tim Healy, Matty never had an ordinary childhood – there were always cameras or spotlights close by. But while his parents belonged to television, he carved out his own path through music, forming The 1975 with his school friends. It’s always struck me as a bit poetic: a kid surrounded by scripts, choosing lyrics instead.
But Matty’s never been one to play it safe. What keeps me watching – apart from the music – is how determinedly messy he lets himself be, in public and on record. He rambles in interviews, sometimes saying something dazzlingly perceptive and other times putting his foot in his mouth. You get the sense he’s thinking out loud, not packaging soundbites. That same nervous honesty cuts through The 1975’s discography, from the fizzy guitars of “Chocolate” to the more head-spinning stuff on their latest albums.
A Complicated Love Life
Healy’s romantic life is an absolute maze – and, honestly, following along over the years is a guilty pleasure and a source of eye-rolling for me. At the moment, he’s linked to model and musician Gabbriette Bechtel. They first popped up together in the fall of 2023, and I’ve seen plenty of Instagram snaps and tabloid photos since then. Rumors say they’re engaged, but last I checked, that’s still just speculation.
Looking back, his relationship timeline has the unpredictable energy of his music. There was the spring 2023 whirlwind with Taylor Swift: a month-long fever dream of headlines, fan meltdowns, and conspiracies before it fizzled out as quickly as it started. Before that, he dated FKA Twigs for about three years, from 2019 to 2022 – a stretch that felt genuinely significant, if only because both of them seemed a bit quieter and softer during that period. I liked them together, probably because their creative weirdness seemed to match.
Then there was Meredith Mickelson, a model who turned up with Matty at Paris Fashion Week in early 2023, though “relationship” might be too strong a word. Honestly, between blurry paparazzi shots and rumors that go nowhere, it’s impossible to tell who actually matters to him beyond the surface. I once read him say in an NME interview, “When someone knows who you are before they meet you, that’s already a weird starting point.” I have to imagine that sums up a lot of his dating life.
Beyond the Headlines
If you pay attention, there’s a weird way his relationships echo whatever’s going on in his music. “Notes on a Conditional Form,” released in 2020 – while he was with FKA Twigs – felt unusually raw and confessional. Maybe it’s reading too much into things, but I’ve always sensed that his love life bleeds into his songwriting.
Healy’s never gone full vault-keeper about his private life, but he’s not exactly inviting us all the way in either. Every now and then he drops a half-philosophical quote that sticks. I still remember reading a 2019 Rolling Stone piece, where he said: “I’m not interested in manufactured moments. I’d rather feel something real and difficult than something perfect and empty.” That kinda sums up the Healy project for me – he’d rather risk a trainwreck than coast on something safe.
There’s been a running joke in the fandom about the sheer number of famous women he’s been rumored to be dating at any given time – Halsey, Dua Lipa, and on and on. Most of it seems made up, but I get why it happens. Healy’s always been good at blurring lines between real life and performance.
Past Relationships
Gabbriette
Taylor Swift
Meredith Mickelson
Charlotte D'Alessio
FKA twigs
Gabriella Brooks
Halsey
For all the messiness – maybe because of the messiness – Matty Healy remains one of the most interesting frontmen out there. He’s infuriating, brilliant, sometimes clueless, and always honest, even when it’s uncomfortable. I’ve been following his zigzag path since that Manchester show, and as much as I roll my eyes at his antics sometimes, I’m still along for the ride. Who knows where he goes next, creatively or personally? But that’s part of the fun – watching him try to work it all out in public, flaws and all.