‘Materialists’ Star Dakota Johnson Sparks Machine Gun Kelly Dating Rumors After Secret NYC Date

Dakota Johnson’s love life has kept tabloids busy for well over a year now, with the actress moving through a string of high-profile relationships that have each generated their own wave of headlines. From her split with Coldplay’s Chris Martin to a brief romance with singer Role Model, Johnson’s personal life has rarely stayed out of the spotlight for long.

That pattern held true again this week, though this time with a genuinely unexpected new name attached. Just weeks after news broke that Johnson had quietly ended things with Role Model, whose real name is Tucker Pillsbury, the actress has already been linked to someone entirely different.

Dakota Johnson and Machine Gun Kelly were spotted on a secret date night in New York City, with the two caught exiting a black SUV together before heading into a Tribeca apartment reportedly belonging to Taylor Swift, according to details reported by TMZ. Swift was said to be out of town at the time, effectively lending her empty apartment as a private meeting spot for the pair.

Johnson and Machine Gun Kelly reportedly first crossed paths at Swift’s wedding to Travis Kelce earlier this year, giving their apparent connection an interesting origin story tied directly to one of the year’s biggest celebrity events. For the low-key outing itself, Johnson was seen in an all-black ensemble, while Machine Gun Kelly wore a jacket featuring a large skeleton design on the back.

Johnson’s relationship with Role Model had only become public knowledge in recent months, with reports on its exact length varying between roughly seven months and closer to a year depending on the outlet. Multiple sources agree the split happened quietly weeks before news of the breakup actually surfaced, with People confirming in mid-August that the couple had ended things “a while ago.”

That relationship itself followed a similarly quick transition, having begun not long after Johnson’s previous split from Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. The rapid pace of these transitions has become something of a defining pattern in Johnson’s dating life over roughly the past fifteen months, moving from one high-profile romance directly into the next with little public downtime in between.

Machine Gun Kelly, meanwhile, brings his own recent relationship history into this new pairing. He was previously in a high-profile relationship with actress Megan Fox, with the two having gone through their own well-documented ups and downs before ultimately parting ways.

The choice to use a friend’s empty apartment as a meeting point, rather than being spotted together at a public venue, suggests both stars are treating this outing as a deliberately low-key first step rather than a splashy public debut. That instinct toward privacy tracks with how Johnson has generally handled the early stages of her past relationships before they became more widely confirmed.

For fans who’ve closely followed Johnson’s dating history, this particular pairing also marks a notable stylistic shift from her previous two relationships. Moving from a globally recognized rock frontman to an indie-leaning singer-songwriter and now to one of music’s more famously unfiltered rock-rap personalities represents a fairly wide range of romantic partners in a relatively short window of time.

Whether this new connection develops into anything more serious remains to be seen, especially given how quietly both Johnson and Machine Gun Kelly appear to be handling things for now. Given the involvement of Swift’s own apartment as a meeting point, it’s clear at least a small, trusted circle is already aware of whatever is developing between them.

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