It’s no secret that Taylor Swift and Kanye West’s relationship can be described as volatile at best.
It all started when the rapper ambushed Swift’s acceptance speech for Video of the Year at the 2009 MTV VMAs — for which he later apologized. Then, in 2016, West released the track “Famous” with the controversial lyrics, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that bitch famous.”
Swifties were outraged and West’s then-wife, Kim Kardashian, came to his defense by sharing a phone call between West and Swift that seemingly proved the rapper and the “Cruel Summer” singer discussed the track ahead of its release.
More than 10 years after the night that started it all, here’s the complete timeline of Taylor Swift and Kanye West’s longtime feud.
September 13, 2009: Kanye West interrupts Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards
The moment that started it all. When Swift was awarded the moon man for Best Female Video for “You Belong with Me” in 2009, West climbed the stairs to interrupt Swift’s acceptance speech with the now-infamous proclamation, “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’ma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time!” Shortly after, a stunned Swift told reporters, “I was standing on stage and I was really excited because I’d just won the award and then I was really excited because Kanye West was on stage … And then I wasn’t excited anymore after that.”
September 14, 2009: Kanye West addresses interrupting Taylor Swift on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
“I immediately knew in the situation that it was wrong and it was a spectacle,” West said, also attributing the outburst to a mixture of “sincerity and alcohol” on Ellen. “It’s actually someone’s emotions that I stepped on. It was very, it was rude, period. I’d like to be able to apologize to her in person.”
September 15, 2009: Taylor Swift reveals that Kanye West called her to apologize
“Kanye did call me and he was very sincere in his apology, and I accepted that apology,” the “Blank Space” singer told ABC Radio in 2009. “The support I got from other artists and from the fans, and so many people sticking up for me, that’s what got me to the place where I could accept that apology. And I’m just very thankful that everyone showed me so much love.”
September 12, 2010: Taylor Swift performs “Innocent,” a song rumored to be about Kanye West, at the MTV Video Music Awards
Swift performed “Innocent” off her album Speak Now at the 2010 MTV VMAs. The song is said to be about the rapper: “It’s all right / Just wait and see / Your string of lights is still bright to me / Who you are is not where you’ve been / You’re still an innocent / … It’s okay / Life is a tough crowd / 32 and still growing up now.”
June 16, 2013: Kanye West says he takes back his apology to Taylor Swift
“I don’t have one regret. If anyone’s reading this waiting for some type of full-on, flat apology for anything, they should just stop reading right now,” he told the New York Times. “I have, as a human being, fallen to peer pressure.”
FROM COINAGE: VMAs by the Numbers
February 8, 2015: Kanye West and Taylor Swift reunite at the 2015 Grammy Awards
The pair were photographed together at the awards show, which sparked rumors of a potential collaboration that West was quick to humor in an interview with Ryan Seacrest. “She wants to get in the studio, and we’re definitely going to go in,” he said. “Any artist with an amazing point of view, perspective, fanbase, I’m down to get in the studio and work. I don’t discriminate.”
August 2015: Taylor Swift addresses her friendship with Kanye West in Vanity Fair
“I feel like I wasn’t ready to be friends with him until I felt like he had some sort of respect for me, and he wasn’t ready to be friends with me until he had some sort of respect for me,” she said in the magazine’s August 2015 issue. “We haven’t planned [any collaboration] … But hey, I like him as a person. And that’s a really good, nice first step, a nice place for us to be.”
August 30, 2015: Taylor Swift presents Kanye West with MTV’s Video Vanguard Award at the MTV Video Music Awards
“I first met Kanye West six years ago – at this show, actually!” she joked while introducing West. “It seemed like everyone in the world knew about our infamous encounter at the VMAs. But something that you may not know is that Kanye West’s album College Dropout was the very first album my brother and I bought on iTunes when I was 12 years old. I have been a fan of his for as long as I can remember because Kanye defines what it means to be a creative force in music, fashion and, well, life. So I guess I have to say to all the other winners tonight: I’m really happy for you, and I’mma let you finish, but Kanye West has had one of the greatest careers of all time!”
August 2015: Kanye West gifts Taylor Swift flowers after the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards
“Awwww Kanye sent me the coolest flowers!! #KanTay2020 #BFFs”, wrote the “Out of the Woods” singer on Instagram, poking fun at the rapper’s announcement that he’s planning on running for president in 2020 during his Video Vanguard Award acceptance speech.
February 9, 2016: Kanye West debuts “Famous” at his Yeezy Show featuring a dig at Taylor Swift
West’s “Famous,” from his album The Life of Pablo, debuted at his Yeezy Show on Feb. 9, 2016, and includes a dig at Swift (“I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous”).
Following the backlash, the rapper took to Twitter, claiming that he had gotten permission from Swift to name-drop her following an hour-long phone conversation with the star.
February 12, 2016: Taylor Swift’s friends come to her defense after Kanye West releases “Famous”
Gigi Hadid, Karlie Kloss and Jaime King, among other members of Swift’s squad, took to social media to address West’s “Famous” lyric. The singer’s younger brother Austin even posted an Instagram video of himself “spring cleaning,” which showed the budding actor trashing his Yeezy 350 Boosts.
February 15, 2016: Taylor Swift responds to Kanye West during her Grammy Awards acceptance speech
The singer got the last word (for the moment) when it came to the “Famous” incident. Upon accepting her Grammy for album of the year in February 2016, Swift indirectly addressed West’s “Famous” lyric while simultaneously delivering a super-empowering speech.
“[A]s the first woman to win album of the year at the Grammys twice,” Swift said, “I want to say to all the young women out there, there are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame.” She continued, “If you just focus on the work, and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you’re going, you’ll look around and you will know that it was you and the people who love you who put you there, and that will be the greatest feeling in the world. Thank you for this moment.”
June 16, 2016: Kim Kardashian says Taylor Swift knew of the infamous Kanye West “Famous” lyric all along
“She totally approved that,” West’s then-wife Kardashian said in the July issue of GQ that year regarding Swift’s knowledge of the lyrics of “Famous” before the song’s release.
Kardashian added, “She totally knew that that was coming out. She wanted to all of a sudden act like she didn’t. I swear, my husband gets so much s— for things [when] he really was doing proper protocol and even called to get it approved.”
June 2016: Taylor Swift’s spokesperson releases a statement following Kim Kardashian’s claims about Kanye West’s “Famous”
A spokesperson for the “New Romantics” crooner was quick to comment on the matter. “Taylor does not hold anything against Kim Kardashian as she recognizes the pressure Kim must be under and that she is only repeating what she has been told by Kanye West,” the statement about West’s then-wife started off. “However, that does not change the fact that much of what Kim is saying is incorrect. Kanye West and Taylor only spoke once on the phone while she was on vacation with her family in January of 2016 and they have never spoken since. Taylor has never denied that conversation took place. It was on that phone call that Kanye West also asked her to release the song on her Twitter account, which she declined to do.”
June 24, 2016: Kanye West releases the “Famous” music video featuring a naked Taylor Swift sculpture
West released his NSFW music video for “Famous” – and, of course, it wasn’t without controversy.
The video also opened with a snippet of Swift and background audio from that fateful night at the MTV Video Music Awards. Then, inspired by Vincent Desiderio’s 2008 Sleep painting, naked sculptures resembling Swift, George W. Bush, Anna Wintour, Donald Trump, Rihanna, Chris Brown, West, Kim Kardashian, Ray J, Amber Rose, Caitlyn Jenner and Bill Cosby all lay naked, lumped together on a large bed with a singular bed sheet covering them.
Swift’s friend Lena Dunham slammed West for the video in a Facebook post. She wrote that while she has no beef with West personally, she strongly objected to the video and urged the rapper to avoid gender stereotypes and the objectification of women’s bodies. She called the music video “sickening” and “disturbing.”
July 17, 2016: Kim Kardashian explains why she defended Kanye West against Taylor Swift
On a July 2016 episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, the family discussed the longstanding feud between West and Swift in great detail, as well as West’s controversial rant during his appearance on Saturday Night Live, where he was recorded backstage calling Swift fake.
When West’s assistant called Kardashian to let her know about the leaked audio recording from SNL, she got upset, though West didn’t seem too bothered. “My full-time job is your publicist,” she told her then-husband. “I care what people think.”
“Kanye says what he wants and he has no filter … and some people may not understand that,” Kardashian added during her interview. “Usually I try to stay neutral and just give moral support.”
She was finally ready to take action when it came to that GQ interview, and she explained to sister Kourtney Kardashian, exactly why she felt the need to speak out.
“I never talk s— about anyone publicly, especially in interviews. But I was just like, I had so had it,” she said “I wanted to defend him in it. She legitimately, quote, says, ‘As soon as I get on that Grammy red carpet I’m gonna tell all the press. Like I was in on it.’ ”
“And then she just didn’t like the reaction?” Kourtney asked.
“Yeah, and you know just another way to play the victim,” Kardashian answered. “It definitely got her a lot of attention the first time,” – referencing when West jumped on VMA stage – “I just don’t think he should be punished for it still to this day.”
“I feel like I’ve had it with people blatantly treating my husband a certain way and making him look a certain way, and I’m gonna say how I feel,” Kardashian said during her interview. “Kanye is always so honest and speaks his mind. And you know, when we were first dating, people would always talk s— and he always had my back. At this point, I really don’t give a f— so I’ll do whatever to protect my husband.”
She then went on to add that Swift even helped West rewrite the lyrics within the song.
“I’m so glad that you said the truth,” Kourtney told her sister. “Yeah, I’m just speaking the truth,” Kardashian replied.
At the end of the episode, Kardashian sat down with momager Kris Jenner to discuss the controversial interview and issues surrounded it. Jenner tried to play peacemaker, asking, “What would happen if you just called Taylor up and say ‘What happened? How did this go so south?’ I guess I don’t understand the motivation to flip … maybe she took it the wrong way. My advice would be to give Taylor Swift a call.”
“Thank you for your lovely advice,” Kardashian told her mother, “but I’m not going to take it.”
July 17, 2016: Kim Kardashian releases video footage of Kanye West’s phone call with Taylor Swift
Immediately following that episode of KUWTK, Kardashian took to Snapchat to provide the proof, sharing a series of videos of that phone call between her then-husband West and Swift, discussing the “Famous” lyrics – as well as their history.
“It’s like a compliment,” Swift is heard saying in the video after West reads the lyrics to her (which include, “For all my Southside n—– that know me best / I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex”).
“What I give a f— is you as a person, and as a friend, I want things that make you feel good,” West said, and thanked Swift “for being like, so cool about it” after she told him she appreciates the “heads up” on the lyrics.
“I never would’ve expected you to like tell me about a line in your song,” Swift said. “I mean, I don’t think anybody would listen to that and be like, ‘Oh, that’s a real diss.’ You gotta tell the story that way that it happened to you and the way you experienced it.”
She went on to add, “If people ask me about it, look, I think it would be great for me to be like, ‘He called me and told me before it came out … Joke’s on you, guys. We’re fine.’ ”
If you’re wondering why Kardashian felt the need to jump in, “Kim is super loyal to Kanye and will always do anything to have his back,” a source tells PEOPLE. “She is even more protective of him than she is of herself. She thinks he’s misunderstood and couldn’t stand that people thought he was a liar.”
Swift’s rep told PEOPLE, “Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyrics, ‘I made that bitch famous.'”
The Internet immediately seemed to side with the reality star, and #KimExposedTaylorParty started trending.
July 17, 2018: Taylor Swift defends herself after Kim Kardashian releases Kanye West phone call footage
Swift wasn’t about to sit back and watch all this happen – she quickly responded to the videos with a post on Instagram.
“Where is the video of Kanye telling me he was going to call me ‘that bitch’ in his song? It doesn’t exist because it never happened. You don’t get to control someone’s emotional response to being called ‘that bitch’ in front of the entire world,” she wrote in a note.
“Of course I wanted to like the song. I wanted to believe Kanye when he told me that I would love the song. I wanted us to have a friendly relationship. He promised to play the song for me, but he never did. While I wanted to be supportive of Kanye on the phone call, you cannot ‘approve’ a song you haven’t heard. Being falsely painted as a liar when I was never given the full story or played any part of the song is character assassination.”
“I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative, one that I have never asked to be a part of, since 2009,” Swift continued. She captioned the post, “That moment when Kanye West secretly records your phone call, then Kim posts it on the Internet.”
July 17, 2016: Taylor Swift’s squad defends her against Kanye West and Kim Kardashian
Luckily, Swift has backup in the form of her A-list squad, who jumped in to defend her.
Selena Gomez tweeted, “There are more important things to talk about… Why can’t people use their voice for something that f—ing matters? Truth is last thing we need right now is hate, in any form.”
Chloë Grace Moretz spoke out against Kardashian’s actions in releasing the videos, too, which led Khloé Kardashian to clap back against her.
Then, Ruby Rose, another member of Swift’s squad, chimed in with: “Yo Khloe I thought you were rad when I met you but this is awful and this is a 19 year old girl. Nobody likes being bullied or made to feel worthless.. Yet so many people will go above and beyond to make others feel that way.”
Martha Hunt also tweeted, “It’s pathetic how quick our culture is to sensationalize a fabricated story.. Take interest in the real problems going on. Spread love.”
July 27, 2016: Kanye West claims victory in his feud with Taylor Swift
“I’m so glad my wife has Snapchat, ’cause now y’all can know the truth,” West told the crowd about his then-wife’s actions at a Drake concert he crashed. After the duo performed their collaboration “Pop Style,” West couldn’t resist bringing up the infamous #KimExposedTaylorParty snaps.
“And can’t nobody talk s— about Ye no more!” he said before launching into his “Famous” verse about Swift.
August 28, 2016: Kanye West says he was not trying to “take down” Taylor Swift
It seems like West is tired of the whole feud. In his 2016 VMAs speech, he rejected the idea that he was trying to “take down Taylor.” West said that he has nothing but love: “That’s why I called her.”
The day after the awards, he tweeted a photo of someone wearing a shirt that showed half of Swift’s 1989 cover and half of his own My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy cover.
October 6, 2016: An earlier version of Kanye West’s song “Famous” leaks with more controversial lyrics about Taylor Swift
The song that started it all could have potentially started a lot more if it was released the way it was initially recorded.
In early October, an earlier recording of the song surfaced online, and the controversial lyric that targets Swift sounds even more controversial: “I feel like Taylor Swift still owe me sex / I made that bitch famous,” he raps. He then repeats part of the verse but subs in his ex Amber Rose’s name. “I feel like Amber Rose still owe me sex / Why? I made that bitch famous / Not really, but somewhat famous,” he continues.
A source close to the situation tells PEOPLE exclusively the demo is revealing. “Now you know why Kim only posted an edited three minutes of video footage to Snapchat and not the hour-long conversation that they had,” says the source.
August 23, 2017: Taylor Swift announces a new album and seemingly references Kanye West feud
Almost a year after Kardashian exposed the secretly recorded phone call on her Snapchat between her then-husband West and Swift, Swift announced the release of her sixth studio album, Reputation. Swift teased the news with a series of mysterious Instagram videos depicting a serpent. This appeared to be her way of reclaiming the snake emoji posted in her Instagram comments section (implying that she was a liar).
November 10, 2017: Taylor Swift slams Kanye West in new song ‘This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things’
Sure, Swift alludes to her ongoing feud with West in her first single, “Look What You Made Me Do,” off her sixth studio album, Reputation (and even appears to reference it in the song’s video, above) but the Grammy winner seemed to dedicate an entire track to the rapper in “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.” While her first Yeezy-inspired track (2010’s “Innocent”) was a heartfelt, understated ballad, her 2017 offering is extra AF — but probably just as heartfelt.
“There I was giving you a second chance / If only you weren’t so shady / But you stabbed me in the back while shaking my hand / And therein lies the issue / Friends don’t try to trick you / Get you on phone and mind-twist you,” she coyly quips over sirens and bumping bass on the theatrical bop.
“Forgiveness is a nice thing to do,” she adds in her best holier-than-thou voice before bursting into a cackle. “I can’t even say it with a straight face.”
January 14, 2019: Kim Kardashian says there’s no more “Bad Blood” between Kanye West and Taylor Swift
In January 2019, Kardashian cleared the air during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, during the show’s “Squash That Beef!” segment. When asked about if her feud with Swift over the leaked phone calls was still ongoing, she said she was “over it.”
“I feel like we’d all moved on,” Kardashian added of the tension between them. Later in the show, she also added that she’d rather be stuck in an elevator with Swift than Drake — another star who’s had a complicated history with her then-husband West.
March 2019: Taylor Swift laughs off feud with Kanye West
In a candid cover story interview with Elle, Swift alluded to her rocky relationship with the Wests and spoke about how she learned to triumph over bullies.
“I learned that disarming someone’s petty bullying can be as simple as learning to laugh,” Swift — whose Reputation era was dominated by the snake imagery — wrote in Elle. “In my experience, I’ve come to see that bullies want to be feared and taken seriously. A few years ago, someone started an online hate campaign by calling me a snake on the internet.”
The singer wrote that the “hate campaign” affected her deeply, but repurposing the symbol her haters used to bully her helped her “Shake it Off.”
“I can’t tell you how hard I had to keep from laughing every time my 63-foot inflatable cobra named Karyn appeared onstage in front of 60,000 screaming fans,” she wrote. “It’s the Stadium Tour equivalent of responding to a troll’s hateful Instagram comment with ‘lol.'”
“It would be nice if we could get an apology from people who bully us,” Swift continued, “but maybe all I’ll ever get is the satisfaction of knowing I could survive it, and thrive in spite of it.”
April 26, 2019: Kim Kardashian seemingly references Kanye West and Taylor Swift feud on Instagram
Just three months after announcing she’d moved past her drama with Swift, the reality star seemingly shaded the “Look What You Made Me Do” singer on her Instagram Story. At the same time as Swift released her highly anticipated single “ME!,” the makeup mogul posted a collection of snake jewelry, which fans took to be a not-so-subtle dig at the Grammy winner due to the association of the snake emoji with the fan response to the Snapchat video of several years ago.
June 2019: Taylor Swift calls Kanye West’s “Famous” music video ‘revenge porn’
At the core of her battle with Scooter Braun over his June 2019 purchase of Big Machine Records, which effectively gave him ownership over Swift’s masters, was his affiliation with the Wests and participation in their feud.
After she learned the Braun had acquired her musical catalogue, she opened up about her emotional response in a lengthy Tumblr post.
“All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years,” she continued. “Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked and then Scooter got his two clients together to bully me online about it.”
She included a screenshot taken from Justin Bieber’s Instagram account of an August 2016 post, in which the “Sorry” singer shared a Facetime call between himself and Braun — who is alongside on-and-off client West, whom Braun was not managing at the time. “Taylor swift what up,” Bieber captioned the post.
Swift then called out West’s infamous “Famous” music video directly. “Or when his client, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked,” the singer said. “Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.”
August 8, 2019: Taylor Swift says that she finds a silver lining through songwriting in her feud with Kanye West
In her September 2019 Vogue cover interview, Swift addressed her decision to air her grievances with West in the way she knows best — by writing a song about it.
“I knew immediately I needed to make music about it because I knew it was the only way I could survive it,” she said of her Reputation track “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.” “It was the only way I could preserve my mental health and also tell the story of what it’s like to go through something so humiliating.”
Swift recalled feeling like she was going through “a grieving process” that involved “so many micro emotions in a day” — something she knows is normal “when you’re going through loss or embarrassment or shame.”
“One of the reasons why I didn’t do interviews for Reputation was that I couldn’t figure out how I felt hour to hour,” she said, explaining that she alternated between feeling grateful for the opportunity to grow and resentful of just how much it took. “Sometimes I felt like: All these things taught me something that I never could have learned in a way that didn’t hurt as much.”
“Five minutes later, I’d feel like: ‘That was horrible. Why did that have to happen? What am I supposed to take from this other than mass amounts of humiliation?'” Swift continued. “And then five minutes later I’d think: ‘I think I might be happier than I’ve ever been.'”
The “You Need to Calm Down” hitmaker, who released her seventh studio album Lover on Aug. 23, told the magazine that the prolonged ordeal with the Wests has ultimately helped her to break free of her image “as this always smiling, always happy ‘America’s sweetheart’ thing.”
“And then having that taken away and realizing that it’s actually a great thing that it was taken away, because that’s extremely limiting,” Swift continued.
And while she’s grateful for what she’s learned and gained from the experience, the Wests shouldn’t expect an olive branch anytime soon. “We’re not going to go straight to gratitude with it. Ever. But we’re going to find positive aspects to it. We’re never going to write a thank you note.”
August 25, 2019: Taylor Swift reveals her diary entry after Kanye West interrupted her 10 years earlier
She may not be writing a thank you note, but she did share some other writing: A 2009 diary entry from the week of the initial incident, which she revealed in extras from her Lover release. “Ahh… the things that can change in a week,” she wrote. “If you had told me that one of the biggest stars in music was going to jump on stage and announce that he thought I shouldn’t have won on live television, I would’ve said, ‘That stuff doesn’t really happen in real life.’ Well … apparently …. It does.”
September 18, 2019: Taylor Swift shares her side of the story behind her phone call with Kanye West
In her most in-depth and candid interview in years, Swift opened up to Rolling Stone in September 2019 about the time surrounding her infamous phone call with West. She offered new details about various “events that led up” to the call, adding that they were what caused her “to be pissed off when [West] called me a bitch.”
She explained that she grew “really sick of the dynamic between he and I,” adding that he reached out to reconnect in private on several occasions only to act differently in public, which she continued to look past “because all I ever wanted my whole career after that thing happened in 2009 was for him to respect me.” She continued, “I hate that about myself … but that’s where I was.” She revealed they’d “go to dinner and stuff” and he “would say really nice things” about her music at the time, and she alleged that West even called her ahead of the 2015 VMAs to ask her to present the Video Vanguard Award to him as a public display of their reconciliation. “I was so stoked that he asked me that,” Swift said.
But when West got on stage and made a comment about MTV using his and Swift’s interaction to boost ratings, “I realized he is so two-faced,” she said. “That he wants to be nice to me behind the scenes, but then he wants to look cool, get up in front of everyone and talk s—.”
By the time “Famous” came out, Swift was done with the ups and downs of their drama. “When I heard the song, I was like, ‘I’m done with this. If you want to be on bad terms, let’s be on bad terms, but just be real about it.’ ”
March 20, 2020: The full phone call between Kanye West and Taylor Swift leaks online
Four years after Kardashian shared the edited phone call between West and Swift discussing his “Famous” lyrics, extended portions of the lengthy conversation were leaked online late on March 20, 2020.
In clips posted to Twitter, the rapper is heard asking Swift to release his new song on her Twitter account. “So my next single, I wanted you to tweet it … so that’s why I’m calling you. I wanted you to put the song out,” he tells the Grammy winner on the phone.
After telling Swift he included a “very controversial line” about her in the song, the pop star nervously asks West what the lyrics are. A wary Swift asks if it’s “gonna be mean,” and West acknowledges even then-wife Kardashian initially felt it was “too crazy” but had come around. “It’s like my wife’s favorite f—ing line,” he says.
“So it says, ‘To all my Southside n—– that know me best/ I feel like Taylor Swift might owe me sex,” continues West with a chuckle. Responds Swift with a laugh: “That’s not mean.”
Further discussing his proposal to have her release the song, Swift — who expresses relief that the lyrics aren’t about her being “that stupid dumb bitch” — tells West she needs to “think about it because it is absolutely crazy.”
“I’m going to send you the song and send you the exact wording and everything about it, right? And then we could sit and talk through it,” West tells Swift, who has long contended she never heard the song before its release, at the end of the call.
After “Famous” was released in February of 2016, Swift’s rep told PEOPLE the singer “declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message. Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyrics, ‘I made that bitch famous.'”
Days later, Kardashian liked a tweet referencing the leak, stating, “The video showed nothing new. We all knew that. I’m so confused right now,” reads the tweet.
March 23, 2020: Taylor Swift responds to the leak of her full phone call with Kanye West
“Instead of answering those who are asking how I feel about the video footage that leaked, proving that I was telling the truth the whole time about *that call* (you know, the one that was illegally recorded, that somebody edited and manipulated in order to frame me and put me, my family and fans through hell for 4 years)…SWIPE UP to see what really matters,” wrote Swift on Instagram Stories on March 23, referencing the leaked call.
“The World Health Organization and Feeding America are some of the organizations I’ve been donating to. If you have the ability to, please join me in donating during this crisis,” continued Swift, directing fans to organizations that are in need during the coronavirus pandemic.
March 24, 2020: Kim Kardashian responds to the leak of the full phone call between Kanye West and Taylor Swift
That same evening in late March, Kardashian returned to Twitter — albeit “embarrassed” to do so — to clap back at Swift’s remarks.
“To be clear, the only issue I ever had around the situation was that Taylor lied through her publicist who stated that ‘Kanye never called to ask for permission…’ They clearly spoke so I let you all see that. Nobody ever denied the word ‘bitch’ was used without her permission,” tweeted Kardashian.
Swift’s publicist, Tree Paine, replied this time, re-sharing her very first statement on the matter, and asking, “P.S. who did you guys piss off to leak that video?”
December 6, 2023: Taylor Swift says feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian felt like a “career death”
During an interview with TIME, Swift reflected on the tumultuous feud between her and West and Kardashian, calling it a “career death” of sorts.
“Make no mistake — my career was taken away from me,” she told the outlet. “You have a fully manufactured frame job, in an illegally recorded phone call, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out to say to everyone that I was a liar.”
Swift continued: “That took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before. I moved to a foreign country. I didn’t leave a rental house for a year. I was afraid to get on phone calls. I pushed away most people in my life because I didn’t trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard.”
