Taylor's Plot To Disappear

Why has the singer been hiding out?

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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.