Is Taylor Swift’s song “The Bolter” based on a true story?

Taylor Swift has said that her songs are often inspired by her life. But she also sings about other people, real and fictional.

“Marjorie” is about her grandmother, the opera singer Marjorie Finlay; “The Last Great American Dynasty” is about Rebekah Harkness, the woman who once owned Swift’s house in Rhode Island; “Starlight” is presumably about Ethel Kennedy.

Fans have a theory that “The Bolter,” a song on “The Tortured Poets Department,” is about socialite Lady Idina Sackville.

Sackville’s life – and love life – made headlines. She was divorced five times in the first half of the 20th century and earned the nickname “The Bolter.”

author Franziska OsborneSackville’s great-grandmother published a novel about the life of her ancestor under the same name in 2008.

Osborne says she didn’t hear much about Sackville growing up. A five-time divorcee known for stirring up trouble among the upper classes in the 20th century, she wasn’t exactly a role model for children.

When Osborne discovered the truth about her relationship with Sackville, she looked into her great-grandmother’s life, which had been so closely scrutinized, and wondered why it was so controversial in the first place.

“Idina was criticized in the press for her relationships, but she didn’t just give up and fall back into a patriarchal role, but fought back by holding her head up high, dressing perfectly and living her life and love on her own terms,” ​​Osborne tells TODAY.com. “That’s what Swift did.”

Regardless of whether “The Bolter” is actually about Sackville or not, Osborne is glad that Swift is sending a message about the double standards toward women who end a relationship.

“Women who leave relationships have been called ‘bolters,’ which is the term for a mad horse and implies that they are irrational. This term may be 100 years old, but women are still all too often blamed in the same way,” explains Osborne.

What is the connection between The Bolter and Lady Idina Sackville, according to Frances Osborne?

Swift never confirmed whether “The Bolter” was directly based on Sackville. TODAY.com has reached out to Swift for comment.

Osborne, however, sees connections between the lyrics and her great-grandmother’s biography of the same name.

Swift’s lyrics describe a woman in a romantic relationship and the relief she feels when she leaves the relationship. “When she left, it felt like breathing,” she sings.

Osborne believes the lyrics are about a woman who finds herself in a “perpetual relationship loop of promising beginnings and bad endings,” a path her great-grandmother knew.

Osborne believes that with this song, Swift shows “a confident woman who flirts with men and seduces them on her own terms.” She sees her great-grandmother reflected in the words:

“It was said of Idina that she could ‘knock a guy off his back’. And that was not because she was born beautiful, but because she used her character and intelligence.”

Swift seems to be criticizing the double standards applied to women who end relationships and men who do the same. “Men are expected to love and leave, so why not women? That’s exactly what Idina did,” says Osborne.

Osborne appreciates the message of “The Bolter,” no matter who it is aimed at.

“Swift’s message resonates both with people who are just figuring out how to live their lives and with the older generation who wish they had had Swift at 25 and are determined that the women who come after them don’t have to make the same mistakes,” says Osborne.

“Swift’s unstoppability is an important message in itself,” Osborne continues. “From left, right and centre, front and back, people have tried to stop her. Each time, she has managed to convey life’s greatest lesson: that bad things happen, the key is to get back up and keep going.”

Read the lyrics to “The Bolter”

According to all reports, she almost drowned

When she was six, in ice-cold water

And I can confirm that they

A curious child, always reviled

From everyone except her own father

With a very charming face

Wonderfully selfish, charmingly helpless

Great fun until you get to know them

Then she runs as if it were a race

Behind her back her best friends laughed

And they nicknamed her “The Bolter”

Started with a kiss,

“Oh, we have to stop meeting like this”

But it always ends with a speeding limousine

One evening on the driveway

Ended with the slamming of a door,

Then he will call her a “whore”

I wish he wasn’t sore

But when she left

It felt like breathing

Your whole shitty life

Flashed before her eyes

It feels like time

She broke through the ice…

Then I came out alive

He was a scoundrel, he wanted her so badly

Like any good trophy hunter

And she liked how it tasted

Taming a bear and teaching it care

Watching him jump and then pulling him under water

And at first glance, fate

When everything is rosy, portrait poses are

In tiny rowing boats across Central Park Lake

What a wonderful Saturday!

Then she sees the smallest leaks

Down in the floorboards

And she just knows it.

She has to get out.

Started with a kiss,

“Oh, we have to stop meeting like this”

But it always ends with a speeding limousine

One evening on the driveway

Ended with the slamming of a door

Then he will call her a “whore”

I wish he wasn’t sore

But when she left

It felt like breathing

Your whole damn life

Flashed before her eyes

It feels like time

She broke through the ice…

Then I came out alive

She was in many places with

Men with many faces

First it starts

And she laughs as she draws aces

But nothing changes

That the car is waiting

Hearts belong to her to break

There is escape in the escape

Started with a kiss,

“Oh, we have to stop meeting like this”

But it always ends with a speeding limousine

One evening on the driveway

Ended with the slamming of a door

But she has the best stories,

You can be sure

That when she left.

It felt like freedom.

Your whole shitty life

Flashed before her eyes

And she realized

It feels like time

She broke through the ice

Then I came out alive

This article was originally published on TODAY.com.