Exactly 10 years ago, when we were still at the height of Gossip Girl parlance, we had one of the greatest eyewitness sightings of our time. Spotted: Two of the world's biggest pop stars going on their second date in Central Park on Dec. 2, 2012.
Yes, it has been a decade since the official birth of "Haylor," a.k.a. the romance between Taylor Swift and Harry Styles. The "I Knew You Were Trouble" singer and the One Direction member's cute outing to the iconic New York City park threw two of the world's biggest fandoms into pure chaos and turned the young couple into one of the paparazzi's most popular subjects, photogs basically chasing their tails trying to track the pair down.
While their romance was shortlived—spanning from October 2012 to January 2013—we remember it all too well, thanks to the infamous pictures from the first public outing, and, of course, all of the bops by their brief relationship. Not that either of the stars have actually admitted to gifting us with tracks about their romance, though Harry has directly addressed the images from their Central Park outing.
"When I see photos from that day, I think: Relationships are hard, at any age," he explained to Rolling Stone in 2017. "And adding in that you don't really understand exactly how it works when you're 18, trying to navigate all that stuff didn't make it easier."
Harry continued, "I mean, you're a little bit awkward to begin with. You're on a date with someone you really like. It should be that simple, right? It was a learning experience for sure. But at the heart of it, I just wanted it to be a normal date."
But, when you are a member of one of the biggest bands in the world, courting arguably the most well-known artists of her generation, privacy is nearly impossible. Though the couple did attempt to make it work. Taylor spent her 23rd birthday with Harry and the pair shared a public kiss on New Year's Eve, only for Taylor to famously be photographed alone on a boat after their breakup just days later.
A decade removed, however, there appears to be no lingering bad blood between the two Grammy winners.
"Certain things don't work out," Harry said in 2017. "There's a lot of things that can be right, and it's still wrong. In writing songs about stuff like that, I like tipping a hat to the time together. You're celebrating the fact it was powerful and made you feel something, rather than 'this didn't work out, and that's bad.' And if you run into that person, maybe it's awkward, maybe you have to get drunk...but you shared something."
And the friendly exes were spotted chatting at the 2021 Grammys, where Taylor was one of the first people to stand up and applaud for Harry when he received his first award for Best Pop Solo Performance.
But, 10 years sober, we must admit, just because we're clean don't mean we don't occasionally miss it.
So, in honor of Haylor's iconic Central Park Zoo date, we're revisiting all of the songs Taylor and Harry have (allegedly!) released about their relationship. (Feel free to make a playlist to properly celebrate this historic moment):