Taylor's Plot To Disappear

Why has the singer been hiding out?

The blueprint was set. In late 2015, Taylor Swift watched as her close pal Ed Sheeran made the conscious decision to disappear from public life for a while. Despite his six Grammy nods and two smash albums, he felt his career was stalling.

“Everything I did, I got a very lukewarm reaction,” he recently explained. “I was like, ‘Here’s a new song.’ And people were like, ‘Ah, great.’” Taking many months off to travel around New Zealand and the rest of the world did the trick – and Taylor clearly took note.

Fresh from a rough 2016 that saw her endure messy break-ups with chart-topper Calvin Harris and The Night Manager actor Tom Hiddleston, plus a very public feud with Kanye and Kim Kardashian West, the usually fame-loving pop star decided to go dark.

Besides a pre-Super Bowl performance on February 4, the 27-year-old hasn’t been seen in public since January. She stepped away from her 101 million Instagram followers as well, with a May 3 plug for her friends’ band Haim her first post in more than two months.

“Taylor was trying to stay out of the media,” a record company insider reveals to Woman’s Day, adding that the 10-time Grammy winner’s plan was to shirk the limelight until she was ready to promote her sixth studio album.