Now, finally, Hiddleston has broken his silence about the beachwear incident in GQ's March cover story – and he’s insisted that the shirt, which launched a thousand memes, was “a joke among friends.”

He explained: “The truth is, it was the Fourth of July and a public holiday and we were playing a game and I slipped and hurt my back.

“I wanted to protect the graze from the sun and said, ‘Does anyone have a T-shirt?’ And one of her friends said, ‘I’ve got this.’ The friend pulled out the "I ♥ T.S." tank top that Taylor’s friends are contractually obliged to own, and we all laughed about it.

“It was a joke.”

Tom Hiddleston finally reveals meaning behind that ‘I Heart Taylor Swift’ t-shirt