Songfacts®:

• Taylor Swift starts her Lover album by shedding the darkness she was living through in the Reputation era; she realizes the feuds and breakups that marked that album don't matter to her anymore.
  
  I forgot that you existed
  It isn't love, it isn't hate, it's just indifference
  I forgot that you
  
  When Swift was writing Reputation (her previous album), she was reeling from a series of public controversies, including a run-in with Kanye West over the rapper's "Famous" lyrics, bad blood between her and Katy Perry, and a beef with Calvin Harris following the end of their relationship. Swift has now moved on; she has found freedom and closure from her heartache.
• Swift wrote the song with Louis Bell and Frank Dukes, the producers responsible for such huge hits as Camila Cabello's "Havana" and Jonas Brothers' "Sucker." The pop star explained on the deluxe edition of Lover that as she hadn't written with Bell and Dukes before, she "wanted to come in with an idea that was pretty much all there, melody and lyrics." So, when Swift came up with the "I Forgot That You Existed" idea, she kept it really simple.
  
  Swift, Bell and Dukes came up with an upbeat sound that went well with the lyrical content about a carefree feeling. Swift said: "I thought it might be a really fun way to open the album, like, basically kind of shrugging off a lot of things that you've been through that have been causing a lot of struggle and pain. And just, one day you wake up and you realize you're indifferent to whatever caused you that pain."
• Swift also collaborated with Bell and Dukes on two other Lover tracks: "Afterglow" and "It's Nice to Have a Friend."
• Regarding this track, Swift wrote on her Spotify storyline: "With the first song on this new album I wanted to bring us out of the Reputation album ere. Reputation for me was about grieving the loss of your reputation and all of the phases you go through. This song closes the book on Reputation by resolving that conflict with a shrug. 'Well, I guess I'm over it now, because I forgot that you existed.'"
• Taylor Swift explained to Rolling Stone that she came to the realization, during the Reputation tour, that her job is to be an entertainer rather than fighting battles all the time. It was that revelation which provided the material for this song. "That tour put me in the healthiest, most balanced place I've ever been," Swift explained. "After that tour, bad stuff can happen to me, but it doesn't level me anymore."
• Taylor Swift played "I Forgot That You Existed" live for the first time during her Mexico City concert on August 24, 2023 in a stripped-back rendition on acoustic guitar.