How Taylor Swift & More Real Figures Inspired Emily Henry’s New Novel Great Big Beautiful Life

Warning: Spoilers for the novel Great Big Beautiful Life ahead.  

All along there were some invisible strings tying Taylor Swift to Emily Henry’s latest novel.

And not just because she’s a massive Swiftie. Like its predecessors, Great Big Beautiful Life (out now) is a captivating rom-com, following Alice Scott and Hayden Anderson as they compete to become the official biographer of now-reclusive media heiress Margaret Ives. But this time, Henry adds a third central figure in the form of the beguiling 20th century tabloid queen, who holds not only the young duo’s professional fates but also their chance at a future together in her hands.

Crafting Margaret and more than a century of her storied family’s history—dating back to the Gilded Age—was no simple task for Henry, who sought inspiration in several real-life figures. Among them, socialite Rebekah Harkness, whose life and controversies Swift details in “Last Great American Dynasty.” 

“I love that song, and love the story behind it,” Henry told E! News in an exclusive interview. “Every once in a while I find myself back on the Wikipedia page, just reading through. I just find those kinds of larger-than-life families really, really intriguing.”