Lorde Might Have Hinted at an Affair With Her Producer After His Ex Shaded the Singer for Stealing Her Boyfriend

Justin Warren (2015-2023)

It’s unclear when the relationship between Lorde and Warren, the American promotions director for Universal Music in New Zealand, started. But the two apparently met in 2009 when she signed onto Universal Music. Lorde was, at the time, 13 years old.

Once rumors started swirling that they were in a relationship, in 2015, they denied them. “Ella and I have worked together for years and we’re good friends. Any rumors of us being ‘a pair’ are ridiculous,” Warren told The Herald then. “Ella has a really busy year ahead of her and we’ll be spending more time together as plans for the next Lorde record unfold.”

The two never officially confirmed their relationship, but they were seen together many times, and in 2021, Lorde was even seen with what looked like an engagement ring, sparking rumors they were ready to take the relationship to the next step.

Lorde explained the reason for her privacy in her personal life in an interview with Vogue, “I’m great at my job, but I’m not sure I’m the man for the job. I’m a highly sensitive person. I’m not built for pop star life. To have a public-facing existence is something I find really intense and is something I’m not good at. That natural charisma is not what I have. I have the brain in the jar.”

Warren and Lorde broke up in 2023, with the singer-songwriter writing in her newsletter to fans that she was experiencing “heartbreak again.”

“I’m living with heartbreak again,” she said. “It’s different but the same. I ache all the time, I forget why and then remember. I’m not trying to hide from the pain, I understand now that pain isn’t something to hide from, that there’s actually great beauty in moving with it. But sometimes I’m sick of being with myself.”

Lorde’s new song “What Was That” is believed to be about their breakup, and the song, ironically, seems to imply a timeline for her relationship with Warren that is different from the previously disclosed one. “Since I was 17 / I gave you everything / Now we wake from a dream / Well baby, what was that?”

This seems to imply Warren and Lorde started dating a few years before they were ever spotted out together, when Lorde was still a minor.

James Lowe (2012-2015)

Lorde reportedly started dating photographer James Lowe when she was 16 and he was 24. And mom didn’t really approve, with her mother telling Rolling Stone, “I didn’t say, ‘Yeah, sure, go date a 24-year-old.’ But her dad and I met James, and we liked him.” She added, “When Ella was much younger, her first boyfriend was older—four years or something.”

And fans think there’s one specific song from Melodrama album, titled “Green Light” that is about Lowe. In the song, Lorde sings about a former lover’s infidelity. “I know about what you did and I wanna scream the truth/ She thinks you love the beach, you’re such a damn liar.”

Ouch.

Rumored: Jim-E Stack

Before her album Virgins was released, musician Kacy Hill seemingly accused Lorde of stealing her boyfriend. “Let’s hear it for the man who ended a 6.5 year relationship while making a girl’s album then started dating her,” she wrote on a TikTok. She also used Lorde’s “Man of the Year” audio in the TikTok.

 The producer worked with Lorde extensively on Virgins. “She had just gone through a breakup of a very long-term, significant relationship,” Stack told GQ of the collaboration. “So I went to New York and we just started making ideas [to] see what happened.”

The sentiments might line up with the song “Current Affairs” where Lorde ponders over “Current Affairs” which could mean a sexual affair or actual news.  “But now I’m crying on the phone / Swearing nothing’s wrong / Blame it on / Current affairs.”

People likened the relationship to the rumor Lorde had an affair with Jack Antonoff while he was with Lena Dunham. The theory got popular after a PowerPoint presentation started circulating on Tumblr.