For context, Paul was linked with musician Phoebe Bridgers after a flirty Twitter interaction in 2020 after the release of Normal People. However, there have now been months of speculation that his rumored engagement with Phoebe is over. In recent weeks, she has been linked with Bo Burnham — but nothing has been confirmed.
When asked about “prodding” of his personal life in a recent profile by Vanity Fair, Paul replied, “Sometimes I can drown it out and then other times it makes me really mad and upset.”
“People are going to write and say things because there’s a certain interest with any person who’s in the public eye in how that person lives their life, and who they’re living up with, and what they’re doing and how they’re going about doing it. And look, a lot of the time people are really kind about their support for me. That’s my predominant experience.”
Then, when asked specifically about speculation surrounding his relationship status, he continued, “I definitely feel the temptation to say the status of my whatever — that will always be there. But I don’t think that’s a wise thing to do.”
“When Normal People came out, I was very forthright in interviews, and it didn’t actually serve me. But the temptation still exists to be like, ‘Shut the fuck up. This is my life. This is what’s going on. Or this is what’s not going on.'”
“But moving forward as much as I can, that’s going to be my life that is private. That’s a difficult thing to achieve. But giving strangers an answer about my life doesn’t actually help me. It’s like a quick boost of serotonin, being like, ‘I’ve said what I need to say.’ And then it’s just Twitter fodder,” he concluded.
You can read the full profile with Paul here.