Tom Hiddleston entertainingly shut down an interviewer on live television after he was asked a question about his much-discussed relationship with Taylor Swift last year.

The 36 year old British actor appeared on the American breakfast TV show ‘Today’ in order to discuss and promote his new film, Kong: Skull Island, on Wednesday (March 8th). However, the discussion was soon directed towards the summer romance that Hiddleston enjoyed with Swift from May to September last year.

Tom HiddlestonTom Hiddleston shut down 'Today's Savannah Guthrie as she asked him about Taylor Swift

“Don’t kill me for asking, but I wondered what was it like to go through all that and be in the public eye?” presenter Savannah Guthrie asked him, broaching the subject. “It must have been disconcerting.”

As if he expected the question, Hiddleston paused for a brief moment and then sighed with exasperation and nervousness, before answering in no uncertain terms that he didn’t wish to get into the subject.

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“I make a clear distinction between my work, which I absolutely dedicate myself to, which is for the public. I really believe in that relationship between an actor and the audience," he said. "You can’t call yourself an actor without the audience. And my private life is private.”

Hiddleswift, as the relationship was popularly dubbed, lasted for just a few months, but the ‘Night Manager’ actor told GQ magazine early in February this year that the passions they felt were genuine, counter to many cynics who claimed the entire course of their relationship was staged.

“Taylor is an amazing woman. She’s generous and kind and lovely, and we had the best time. Of course it was real,” he said.

More: Tom Hiddleston insists his relationship with Taylor Swift was “real”