Betty is James’s established romantic partner in Taylor Swift’s “august” storyline.
Folklore links “august,” “cardigan,” and “betty” through a fictional love triangle involving James, Betty, and Augustine. In “august,” Augustine remembers a summer relationship with James, but the song makes clear that he was never truly hers because his relationship with Betty remained central.
The three songs do not function as a straightforward chronological narrative told by one singer. Instead, they offer different perspectives and emotional angles on the same imagined adolescent situation. That structure is part of Folklore’s larger interest in invented characters and stories.
Listeners sometimes assume the album’s narrator is Swift herself because the lyrics are intimate and detailed. Swift has explained that these songs were built around fictional narratives rather than a literal account of her own teenage life.