The Truth Behind Kimye's Feud With Taylor Swift

Songstress Taylor Swift said she wants "to be excluded from this narrative" that she claims celeb couple Kimye — reality star Kim Kardashian and her husband, rapper Kanye West — are perpetuating about her. That would be fine and fair if Swift had not arguably helped extend this storyline for years. Let's review the nitty-gritty details of their outrageous feud.

When Swift beat out Beyoncé for best female video at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, it didn't sit well with the admittedly inebriated West. Yeezy stormed the stage, took the mic, and told Swift (and the world), "Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you and I'mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!" Swift was horrified. West was booed. Queen Bey later invited Swift onto the stage to give the acceptance speech she had so rudely been denied.

West wrote a quasi-apologetic blog post (via MTV News) that said, "I'm sooooo sorry to Taylor Swift and her fans and her mom. I spoke to her mother right after and she said the same thing my mother would've said. She is very talented! I like the lyrics about being a cheerleader and she's in the bleachers! I'm in the wrong for going on stage and taking away from her moment!" Of course, West also had to add, "Beyoncé's video was the best of this decade!!!! I'm sorry to my fans if I let you guys down!!!! I'm sorry to my friends at MTV. I will apologize to Taylor 2mrw. Welcome to the real world!!!! Everybody wanna booooo me but I'm a fan of real pop culture!!! No disrespect but we watchin' the show at the crib right now cause...well you know!!!! I'm still happy for Taylor!!!! Boooyaaawwww!!!! You are very very talented!!! I gave my awards to Outkast when they deserved it over me...That's what it is!!!!!!! I'm not crazy y'all, i'm just real. Sorry for that!!! I really feel bad for Taylor and I'm sincerely sorry!!! Much respect!!!!!" (West later yanked that blog post.)

He wrote a second blog (via Rolling Stone) that read, "I feel like Ben Stiller in Meet The Parents when he messed up everything and Robert De Niro asked him to leave...That was Taylor's moment and I had no right in any way to take it from her. I am truly sorry." West later deleted that blog post as well.

West then appeared on The Tonight Show, where he told host Jay Leno, "It was rude, period. I'd like to be able to apologize to her in person." When Leno asked West how his mother, who had recently died, would have felt about his behavior, the rapper choked up and grew quiet.

Taylor Swift gave a slew of interviews about the incident, despite claiming she didn't want to talk about it or make it a big deal. A few weeks after the award show, she appeared on The View, where she insisted that she was upset because of the fans, you guys! "My overall thought process went something like, 'Wow, I can't believe I won!'...I'm going to get to thank the fans, this is so cool—oh, Kanye West is here. Cool haircut. What are you doing there? And then, ouch. And then, I guess I'm not going to get to thank the fans.'" She added, "I'm not going to say I wasn't rattled by it" and claimed West had not made any efforts to apologize to her.

On that same day, however, Swift told ABC News, "Kanye did call me and he was very sincere in his apology, and I accepted that apology." She also agreed that the situation was done and everyone was pretty happy. When asked if everything would be okay between them in the future, Swift said, "Yah! Definitely!"

A year later, in September 2010, West went on a since-deleted Twitter spree to apologize to Swift, even revealing that he wrote her a song. "[It's] so beautiful and I want her to have it. If she won't take it then I'll perform it for her," he said (via Entertainment Weekly). After a flurry of semi-coherent tweets, including something about the wicked witch from Oz (seriously!), he concluded it all with, "I'm sorry Taylor."

At the VMAs in September 2010, Swift performed her new song, "Innocent," barefoot on stage. The track was inspired by her experience with West. "I think a lot of people expected me to write a song about him," she told New York magazine. "But for me it was important to write a song to him."

Lyrics include: "Wasn't it beautiful runnin' wild 'til you fell asleep / Before the monsters caught up to you?...It's okay, life is a tough crowd / 32, and still growin' up now / Who you are is not what you did. You're still an innocent." According to the magazine, some viewed the song "as deeply sympathetic toward West; others as patronizing in its sympathy."

When Swift released her album, Speak Now, a month later, there was a message in the liner notes of "Innocent" that read, "Life is full of little interruptions" (via BuzzFeed).

In November 2010, West revealed to The New York Times that he and Swift spoke privately about the interruption incident and even joked about it, but he said she never tried to stop the media from vilifying him in the aftermath. "She just talked about how people would come up to her in the grocery store and really just bring it up, and she would defend me at the grocery store—I'm sorry, defend me in an interview...It's an amazing, compelling situation." A few weeks later, Vulture reported that West called Swift out during a performance in New York, telling the crowd, "Taylor never came to my defense in any interview. [She] rode the waves and rode it and rode it..."

Swift and West seemed to bury the hatchet a few months later. At the Met Gala in May 2011, The New Yorker reported that she and West had a brief but friendly run-in that started with Swift freaking out and ended with a casual high-five.

An October 2012 Rolling Stone cover story revealed that Swift kept a framed photo of the infamous VMA incident in her Nashville condo. The frame is engraved with "Life is full of little interruptions," the same message she hid in the liner notes of Speak Now.

In July 2013, Swift tweeted, "Two VMA nominations!! If you vote and get us one, I promise to keep a firmer grip on the mic this time" (via Bustle). Just like that, the old grudge was back in the headlines.

The next day, Gawker published some so-called "secret" audio allegedly recorded at a restaurant immediately after those 2009 VMAs. In the "leaked" recording, West passionately justifies his actions, barking, "Taylor Swift cannot beat Beyoncé! As long as I'm alive!" Coincidental timing?

A month later, singer Ed Sheeran posted a photo of a gift from Swift on his Instagram. The present was a jar of homemade jam, and the label read, "Yo Ed—I'm really happy 4 you and I'm gonna let u finish, but this is the best jam of all time. —T"

At the Grammy Awards in February 2015, Swift and West finally made up, shaking hands and hugging with Kim Kardashian in tow. A few days later, West told talk show host Ryan Seacrest, "Taylor Swift came up to me and told me I should have went onstage [when Beck won an award]. This is the irony of my life...she wants to get in the studio [with me]." Following the Grammys, the pair was spotted dining together, and Swift was even seen mugging for photos and dancing next to Kardashian during West's performance at the BRIT Awards.

In August 2015, Swift told 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—so it was the same issue, and we both reached the same place at the same time." Later that month, Swift presented West with the Video Vanguard Award at the VMAs.

On February 11, 2016, West debuted his song "Famous" during a Madison Square Garden performance. The song's lyrics include this line: "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that b— famous." West insisted that Swift approved of the song, which she denied. Swift's team fired off a statement that said, "Kanye did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his single 'Famous' on her Twitter account...She declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message. Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyric."

Days later, Swift allegedly took a swipe at West while accepting the Grammy for album of the year, saying, "There will be people along the way that will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame."

In June 2016, West dropped the video for "Famous," which featured a nude Swift lookalike in bed with the rapper and several other celebrities. Swift never commented on the video. She was too busy canoodling around the world with her brand new beau, Thor star Tom Hiddleston. Some gossipers even went so far as to speculate that Swift's public displays of affection were a ploy to divert attention from the Kimye debacle.

in a July 2016 cover story for GQ, West's doting wife insisted Swift did approve West's controversial track. "She totally knew that that was coming out. She wanted to all of a sudden act like she didn't...[West] really was doing proper protocol and even called to get it approved...[Swift] totally gave the okay," she said. "It was funny because [on the call with Kanye, Taylor] said, 'When I get on the Grammy red carpet, all the media is going to think that I'm so against this, and I'll just laugh and say, 'The joke's on you, guys. I was in on it the whole time.'" Kim Kardashian said the only communication West and Swift had since the song's release was "an attorney's letter [Swift] sent saying, 'Don't ever let that footage come out of me saying that. Destroy it.'"

Swift's camp denied Kardashian's story, but on July 17, 2016, Kardashian released Snapchat video footage of Swift on the phone with West while he was in the studio working on "Famous." Kardashian also railed against Swift on an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jprU442C43w

In a lengthy Instagram post on July 18, 2016, Taylor Swift defended herself by drawing attention to the specifics of that controversial Snapchat clip. "Where is the video of Kanye telling me he was going to call me 'that b—' 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 b—' in front of the entire world," she wrote (via Entertainment Tonight). "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."

Swift reportedly threatened criminal action against Kanye West back in February 2016 for secretly recording that phone call. According to TMZ, Swift's lawyer sent a letter that read, "Demand is hereby made that you immediately destroy all such recordings, provide us of assurance that this has been done, and also assurance that these recordings have not been previously disseminated."

Brace yourselves, everyone. The celebrity battle between Taylor Swift and Kimye is showing no signs of a ceasefire.