Matty Healy Has Faced Backlash for Several Reasons Before Taylor Swift Split: His Controversies

The 1975's Matty Healy is facing major backlash after a resurfaced interview of the British frontman features his admission to watching a hardcore pornography website called Ghetto Gaggers. Although the interview took place in February 2023, Matty's suspected romance with mega pop star Taylor Swift has catapulted him to a new level of notoriety. Keep reading for everything we know about his current scandal and cancelation. 

Why Is Matty Healy Canceled? 

Matty has been the subject of backlash many times over the course of his decades-long career. However, his February 2023 interview on "The Adam Friedland Show," which has since been removed from Apple and Spotify, proved to be one of his more controversial moments. 

The U.K. native made racist remarks about rapper Ice Spice, calling her a "chubby Chinese lady," among other inappropriate and degrading comments. Later, during the same episode, Matty and host Adam Friedland discussed a situation wherein Adam and a group of friends left Matty’s apartment after a party. However, one person realized she forgot her water bottle, and she quickly went back to the apartment to retrieve it, only to walk in on Matty watching the aforementioned porn website, Ghetto Gaggers. 

Ghetto Gaggers is a known racist and misogynistic pornography website featuring content that humiliates and sexually degrades women of color, specifically Black women. “Extreme hardcore face f—king, ebony hoodrats, ghetto double penetration, yellow discipline and interracial throat banging of the Ghetto Gaggers,” the official description of Ghetto Gaggers reads, per BuzzFeed. 

“She went back in and Matty, like, on his phone and then on his 77-inch OLEDs just got Ghetto Gaggers blaring,” Adam said during the podcast. “Thirty seconds after the hang, just hardcore pornography.”

Matty then recalled the moment when their friend named Olive walked in on him watching the porn. 

"You're not exaggerating. It was 30 seconds, like, you guys were still waiting outside," he recalled. “She came back in; I was already flustered. I was dressed as ‘guy who is jacking off,’ so I had, like, an untucked shirt, and I think it literally was Ghetto Gaggers on the TV — somebody just getting, like, brutalized. … And it wasn’t some cool-scene New York art girl [who walked in on me]. It was little Olive, who came in, like, ‘I’m so sorry, I’m just getting my water!’”

Later in the conversation, Matty revealed that he chose to AirPlay the porn from his phone to his TV, laughing at the memory. 

"You texted me immediately being like, ‘I just need the info on this story, like, how psychopathic do you have to be to AirPlay porn to your TV?'" he said. 

Though Matty did not publicly address his February 2023 podcast comments, he addressed a crowd while on stage in April 2023, apologizing to Ice Spice, per Rolling Stone.

“The truth is, I see a sign that says like, ‘Matty, I hope you’re OK.’ I feel a bit bad, to be honest, because I feel like I’ve been a bit irresponsible,” he said. “It’s very well for me to say, 'I don’t understand how famous I am. I don’t like being famous.' But reality is reality. And I think that I’ve said some things or kind of, I make a joke out of everything. That’s my thing. And I can take it too far sometimes in front of too many people. And I feel a bit embarrassed. So that’s the truth.”

In a May 2023 Reddit thread, several online users expressed their concern over Matty's connection to Taylor, with some individuals slamming the “Lavender Haze” artist for associating herself with him. 

“This whole thing is making me lose respect for Taylor,” one person commented.

A rep for Matty did not immediately respond to Life & Style's request for comment. 

During a May 2023 interview with The New Yorker, Matty addressed the controversy over his podcast appearance.

When asked if his comments on the podcast were a way to bait his fans “on purpose,” Matty responded, “A little bit.”

“But it doesn’t actually matter,” he said. “Nobody is sitting there at night slumped at their computer, and their boyfriend comes over and goes, ‘What’s wrong, darling?’ and they go, ‘It’s just this thing with Matty Healy.’ That doesn’t happen. If it does, you’re either deluded or you are, sorry, a liar.”

Matty continued, “You’re either lying that you are hurt, or you’re a bit mental for being hurt. It’s just people going, ‘Oh, there’s a bad thing over there, let me get as close to it as possible so you can see how good I am.’ And I kind of want them to do that, because they’re demonstrating something so base level.”

Are Matty Healy and Taylor Swift Dating? 

Weeks after Taylor's split from longtime boyfriend Joe Alwyn, the "Love Story" artist was spotted spending time with Matty on multiple occasions in May 2023, including an NYC outing showing the musicians holding hands. Moreover, the "Robbers" singer has attended six of Taylor's concerts during her "Eras Tour." 

Taylor and Matty had a "brief" relationship "years ago," a source told Us Weekly, noting they're "having a good time reconnecting again." 

In June 2023, Life & Style confirmed that Taylor and Matty called it quits after just one month of dating.

What Has Matt Healy Said About Taylor Swift? 

Previously, Matty spoke with The Guardian about his former fling with the Grammy Award winner. 

“I feel like I’m not very good at relationships,” he told the outlet in 2016. 

When answering the question of whether he was afraid of losing himself, Matty replied, “Absolutely. And the reason I mention that is because if I had [properly] gone out with Taylor Swift, the first thing I would’ve [thought was] ‘F—king hell I am NOT being Taylor Swift’s boyfriend.’ You know, F—k that. … That’s also a man thing, a demasculinizing, emasculating thing.”

Following his breakup with Taylor, Matty seemingly hinted at their split while addressing the crowd at a June 2023 concert.

Upon noticing a fan’s sign that read, “You are loved,” Matty said, “That was very, very kind of you. I’m sure that’s alluding to …”

Without mentioning Taylor by name, the 1975 front man noted, “As you’re aware, I’m not very online at the moment, and I’m sure people have just been calling me a c--t relentlessly. I’ve not been online, but what I have been with is my boys. And honestly, as much as I appreciate that — it’s so beautiful, and I thank you — but I don’t need it because I’ve got them.”