The Shady Side Of Taylor Swift

For a long time, Taylor Swift wanted to be a star. Over the years, the country-turned-pop singer visualized the script of how her life would play out once she had a face that was familiar enough to be recognizable in restaurants. "I always used to say when I was a little kid, if I ever got to do this, I would make the most of it, and I would try to do good things with it," Swift once recalled in an interview with "Canada AM."

The "Back to December" singer unwaveringly worked her way toward worldwide fame, but along with the recognition she attained came a lack of privacy. "In my apartment, in my house, we can bake, we can make dinner, we can dance, we can do whatever we want. It's just a fact that when I'm outside the doors of my apartment, people are watching me," she explained. "And that's the life that I chose."

The world — her brigade of Swifties included — scrutinizes news of all things Swift: charities, dressing, relationships, and friendships, you name it! But Swift's widespread popularity also warrants a seemingly shadier side that features high-profile feuds, legal battles, allegations of plagiarism, controversial views on feminism, questionable dating habits, and the like. Let's take a closer look at the shady side of Taylor Swift.

Taylor Swift's songwriting process involves penning down emotions as they come. As such, Swift's love life has inspired some of her hits, a fact she didn't exactly shy away from while promoting her "Speak Now" album during a 2010 appearance on "The Late Show with David Letterman." Asked whether her partners had a say, in the event that they didn't want to be her muse, the 12-time Grammy Award winner quipped, "Yeah, but you know, this is the third album that I've been doing this. So they had fair warning at this point."

At the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, Swift went up against Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, Pink, and Demi Lovato for best female video, and eventually won. In her acceptance speech, she showed gratitude to those that made "I Knew You Were Trouble" a massive song, and on top of that, took a jab at a former lover. "I also wanna thank the person who inspired this song, who knows exactly who he is, because now I got one of these," she expressed joyfully. The camera then cut to Swift's ex-boyfriend, Harry Styles, who — it's worth noting — happened to join in the crowd's applause.

As one whose admitted grudges toward certain exes are well-documented, it's somewhat surprising that Swift has remained on good terms with some exes and their own partners. For example, having struck a friendship with former flame Joe Jonas' estranged wife, Sophie Turner, Swift was spotted on a girls' night out with the model in September 2023 amid divorce reports in the Jonas-Turner camp.

Some of Taylor Swift's musical inspirations have not been entirely impressed by the singer's not-so-romantic ballads. In 2012, musician John Mayer told Rolling Stone he was embarrassed by the song "Dear John" off of her third studio album "Speak Now," presumed to be about him. "It made me feel terrible, because I didn't deserve it," Mayer said, further revealing he was blindsided by the song's release. "I never got an email. I never got a phone call. I was really caught off-guard," Mayer continued. Swift, he said, was too big an artist to stoop to what he thought was low-level songwriting. In response, Swift claimed to Glamour (via the New York Daily News) that Mayer wasn't the track's inspiration. "How presumptuous! I never disclose who my songs are about," she retaliated.

Mayer isn't alone in his gripes. In an interview on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," Swift revealed that her song "Forever & Always" was written with Joe Jonas in mind. The Jonas Brothers bandmember had apparently called off their relationship over a brief phone call. Jonas took to Myspace to address his split with Swift. "For those who have expressed concern over the '27 second' phone call," he wrote (via MTV News), "I called to discuss feelings with the other person. Those feelings were obviously not well received. I did not end the conversation. Someone else did. Phone calls can only last as long as the person on the other end of the line is willing to talk."

Taylor Swift has continuously dominated numerous awards in the past, but some of her reactions when she lost stirred the pot. At the 2013 Golden Globe Awards, British song sensation Adele secured a best original song win for "Skyfall." Adele was in the running alongside a number of famous musicians, including Swift. As the singer was accepting her award, a shot of Swift curling her lips briefly showed on the screen.

A year later, Swift was not only a performer but also a nominee at the Grammys. With "Red," she was in competition with Kendrick Lamar, Sara Bareilles, Daft Punk, and the Macklemore-Ryan Lewis duo for album of the year. As Alicia Keys announced the winner, Swift was first open-mouthed and then almost immediately began clapping for the musicians of the day, Daft Punk. She later revealed in a conversation with Grammy Pro that she was under the impression that she had won, based on Keys' sluggish pronunciation. "For a second there, I kinda thought we had it," Swift said. "... I remember not going to after-parties. I went home, and I cried a little bit, and I got In-N-Out Burger and ate a lot."

In Taylor Swift's song "Better Than Revenge," off of her 2010 album "Speak Now," the singer created controversy with lyrics that were said to target an ex-lover's new flame. "She's not a saint and she's not what you think / She's an actress / She's better known for the things that she does / On the mattress," Swift sings. Word on the street was that Swift was referencing "10 Truths about Love" actor Camilla Belle, who'd allegedly stolen Joe Jonas from her.

In his aforementioned Myspace letter, Jonas vehemently denied that there was an overlap between his relationships with Swift and Belle. "It might make someone feel better to assume or imply I have been unfaithful but it is simply not true," he wrote. "Maybe there were reasons for a breakup. Maybe the heart moved on. Perhaps feelings changed."

Long after Belle and Jonas had called it a day, the former would back up tweets supposedly aimed at Swift during her X (formerly known as Twitter) wars with Katy Perry and Kim Kardashian (more on these below). "No need for revenge. Just sit back & wait. Those who hurt you will eventually screw up themselves & if you're lucky, God will let you watch," Belle shared in a 2016 tweet. Years later, Swift altered the lyrics in "Better Than Revenge" to exclude the disputed lines during her re-releases.

In the summer of 2012, Taylor Swift made headlines yet again for a reported whirlwind romance with Conor Kennedy, the son of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Speaking to ABC News in October of the same year, Swift declined to comment on the relationship. "I don't talk about my personal life in that great detail," she said. "... I feel like you can share enough of your life in your music to still let people know what you're going through and how you feel, and still with all the connection." The bone of contention was not just a four-year age difference between the then-couple, but also the fact that the duo was first spotted getting cozy on July 31, 2012, a week after Kennedy had turned 18.

When asked if she "kidnapped" Kennedy by flying him out to Nashville privately, Swift scoffed to Rolling Stone, "How did I kidnap him? You can't kidnap a grown man. These are serious accusations, now!" Reportedly though, Swift had been studying the Kennedy family prior to the relationship.

Folks had a lot to say when the songstress bought a $4.9 million beach house near the Kennedy estate in Cape Cod, allegedly just to be close to him. After the couple broke up, Swift sold that pad for a purported $1 million profit.

When Taylor Swift was dating Conor Kennedy, she was accused of crashing a family wedding with him against the bride's wishes. Conor's cousin, Kyle Kennedy, was tying the knot with Liam Kerr. Kyle's mother, Victoria Gifford Kennedy, apparently didn't want the "Love Story" singer in attendance. Victoria told The Boston Herald of the said day, "They texted me an hour before the wedding and asked if they could come. I responded with a very clear, 'Please do not come.' They came anyway." According to Victoria's account of events, she graciously let Swift know her name, and showed her the door afterward. But Swift apparently paid her no mind. "It was like talking to a ghost," Victoria continued. "She seemed to look right past me."

Swift's camp denied the claims, but "Today" show host Kathie Lee Gifford, who was at the wedding, insisted the incident happened exactly as Victoria described. On her show, Gifford said (via E! News), "It's the bride's day, and that was Vicki's other concern. ... I was out in the hallway, [Swift] was waiting, standing around, and he came out, took her by the hand and they left."

Taylor Swift stirred up a hornet's nest of criticism when she tried discussing feminism in a 2012 interview with The Daily Beast. "I don't really think about things as guys versus girls. I never have," she said. "I was raised by parents who brought me up to think if you work as hard as guys, you can go far in life." According to critics, Swift supposedly missed the point by suggesting some sort of male standard to try to meet.

Her interactions with other women in the entertainment industry have also birthed several questions surrounding her feminist beliefs. When comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler wise-cracked about her dating life at the Golden Globes in 2013, Swift quoted Katie Couric (who was actually quoting Madeleine Albright) in Vanity Fair, telling the magazine, "There's a special place in hell for women who don't support other women." Two years later, Swift's words rang hollow when her "Bad Blood" video — reportedly inspired by Swift's hatred for another female artist (more on that later) — won video of the year at the MTV Video Music Awards.

There are more clashing feminist ideals in Swift's long-lasting career. At the 2016 Grammys, Swift made it clear that she was proud to be the first woman to win album of the year twice, but she accepted her Grammy for "1989" on a stage full of male collaborators. Swift also privately helped Kesha fund her legal battle against Dr. Luke, but never made a public statement of support.

In 2012, singer-songwriter Matt Nathanson expressed his distaste for a lyric in Taylor Swift's "All Too Well" that was very similar to a line in his song "I Saw." In "All Too Well," Swift sings, "And I'll forget about you long enough / To forget why I needed to," while Nathanson croons, "I'll forget about you long enough / To forget why I need to" in his 2003 release.

While this could, of course, be a coincidence, Swift had previously revealed that she was a fan of Nathanson, even scribbling lyrics to his song "Queen Of (K)nots" on her arm for a July 2011 performance, according to Spin. In October 2012, Nathanson wrote in a since-deleted tweet, "She's definitely a fan ... and now she's a thief." In a follow-up November tweet that same year, Nathanson called out Swift's ever-active online army for attacking him over his own lyrics. For her part, Swift never commented on the lyrical similarities.

Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris split after more than a year of dating in early June 2016, and she and Tom Hiddleston were spotted together just days later. Rumor has it that Swift may have hitched her star to Hiddleston before her relationship with Harris was even over. The DJ was reportedly miffed when PDA photos of Swift and "The Avengers" star went viral right after he and Swift broke up. Both Swift and Harris also erased traces of their relationship from their Instagram accounts afterward.

An unnamed source claimed to E! News, "Calvin was very suspicious that Taylor was cheating during their relationship. He just didn't know with whom. He feels like these pictures confirm his suspicions, and it changes everything." The insider added, "He is so angry and feels betrayed. He is convinced that Taylor was cheating with Tom while they were still together."

The chemistry between Swift and Hiddleston at the May 2016 Met Gala had been undeniable when a video surfaced of them dancing together. As another source told The Sun, "The timing of this looks very bad for Taylor." By September of that year, however, Swift and Hiddleston were through. She soon began dating actor Joe Alwyn, though that romance was reportedly kept under wraps for more than six months.

During Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris' relationship, the latter released the massive hit "This Is What You Came For," featuring Rihanna, but it wasn't until after he and Swift broke up that her role in its making became public. According to TMZ, Swift, the original songwriter, recorded a demo of the track on her phone and shared it with Harris. The pair hit the studio thereafter and chose to give Swift final credit under the Swedish pseudonym "Nils Sjoberg" to prevent the media from harping on the couple instead of the craft.

According to the publication, trouble brewed in the Harris-Swift relationship after his interview with "On Air with Ryan Seacrest." When Harris was asked if he would collaborate with Swift, he remained true to their alleged agreement and told the award-winning broadcaster, "You know, [Swift and I] haven't even spoken about it. I can't see it happening though."

Swift's group of friends was reportedly unimpressed by Harris' apparent lack of gratitude. After Swift's contribution went public via her publicist, Harris took to X (formally Twitter) to explain how the song came about. "Hurtful to me at this point that her and her team would go so far out of their way to try and make ME look bad at this stage though," one of his since-deleted tweets read. To add insult to injury, more than a year later, Swift not-so-subtly featured a gravestone of "Nils Sjoberg" in her music video for "Look What You Made Me Do."

When Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift at the 2009 VMAs, it marked the beginning of her long feud with the rapper. Swift revealed to New York Magazine that she wrote her song "Innocent" about it — she even kept a framed photo of the incident in her home.

At the 2015 Grammys, the two finally mended fences, or so we thought when they were pictured together. Things went south when West released his 2016 song "Famous." West's derogatory reference to Swift in the song and equally disturbing footage of a Swift look-alike lying naked in bed in the music video, opened a Pandora's box. While Swift was clearly upset by how she was depicted, West's then-spouse, Kim Kardashian, maintained that she was privy to the lyrics.

"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,'" Kardashian disclosed to GQ. Swift's camp denied Kardashian's claims, until the reality star released footage of Swift on the phone with West while he was in the studio. Swift promptly stated in part, "I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative, one that I have never asked to be a part of, since 2009." While the entire call leaked in 2020 and appeared to prove Swift's side of the story right, she still arguably kept this narrative alive throughout her "Reputation" era.

In 2014, Taylor Swift removed her entire catalog from all streaming services ahead of her "1989" album release. In June 2015, she specifically called out Apple Music in a since-deleted Tumblr letter for its streaming revenue model, claiming it was unfair to not pay artists and other music creatives for streaming their music during the service's 90-day trial period. "I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company," Swift wrote, further adding that her close music associates, who were equally disappointed by the conglomerate's decision, were scared to raise their grievances publicly.

Apple Music changed their tune days later, and so did Swift, who tweeted in a now-deleted post, "After the events of this week, I've decided to put '1989' on Apple Music...and happily so. This is simply the first time it's felt right in my gut to stream my album. Thank you, Apple, for your change of heart."

Toward the end of 2015, Swift inked a huge business deal with her former foe that included an exclusive "1989 World Tour" documentary. According to Billboard, Swift's decision was business-oriented and allegedly a mere marketing stunt, which posed further questions when the best-selling artist starred in commercials for Apple Music the following year.

In September 2017, a blog called PopFront posted an essay criticizing Taylor Swift for not speaking out against white supremacists who view her as an Aryan icon. Two months later, Variety reported that Swift's legal team contacted the blog's editor, Megan Herning, demanding that the blog be removed and accusing the writer of defamation. According to the media outlet, the letter also claimed to be an official denouncement of white supremacy from Swift, but her attorneys also demanded copyright protection to keep it private. The move meant that the songstress wouldn't go down in history to have publicly denounced white supremacy, which, ironically, was the point of the entire blog post.

The American Civil Liberties Union published the letter in its entirety, as well as a letter of its own that took subtle jabs at Swift's own song titles. It also prompted former The Daily Beast editor Marlow Stern to reveal through a tweet that Swift had sent the publication a letter, as well.

Two years after PopFront's post, Swift shared her thoughts on white supremacy in an interview with Rolling Stone. "There's literally nothing worse than white supremacy. It's repulsive. There should be no place for it," Swift said, also adding that she'd started taking a strong interest in politics.

Time and again, Taylor Swift has told the story of how she learned to play the guitar. According to the "Enchanted" singer, a computer repairman visited her home. He had a guitar with him, and what started as a brief lesson of three cords turned into a week-after-week class.

The man in question, Ronnie Cremer, opened up about working with Swift in an interview with the New York Daily News. Cremer's account of events differed a bit from Swift's version. He'd already begun the $32-per-hour job long before any computer repair happened. The guitar lessons, he said, lasted for more than two years.

Cremer eventually landed in Swift's bad books. According to the Daily News (via Refinery 29), Swift's legal team sunk its teeth into Cremer, demanding he shut down a website he created called ITaughtTaylorSwift.com. "I almost feel like they were trying to bully me a little bit," Cremer told the publication. "I'm not giving back the domain name. I mean, GoDaddy sold it to me." He said he'd made plans for the website, but they weren't commercially driven. "I've got nothing to sell on it," Cremer revealed. "It's going to be an informational website that basically lets people know what really happened."

Taylor Swift was definitely a girls' girl when she was the squad leader for "1989" in the mid-2010s. Swift's girl group diversely featured familiar faces like actors Ruby Rose, Blake Lively, and Cara Delevingne, as well as models Gigi Hadid and Martha Hunt, and it wasn't short of her lesser-known childhood friends. The whole squad got together for Swift's Fourth of July party in 2016, which also included an appearance by actor Ryan Reynolds. Although the squad appeared to be tight knit at the time, reports indicated that Swift may have moved on by the time "Reputation" rolled around in 2017.

An anonymous exiled squad member claimed to Grazia (via Elle) in March the following year, "Celebrity friendships are weird. You don't see each other for forever, and you accept that, but Taylor's gone off-grid in a big way since meeting Joe [Alwyn]." The unnamed source further alleged that some squad members were being asked to avoid naming Swift when talking to the press.

A second insider said Swift was laying low, and it wasn't because of a disagreement. "She was stung by claims her squad was elitist and prefers to spend time with close friends one-on-one at the moment," the little birdie whispered. "Since meeting Joe, her priorities have shifted, and everyone's hoping for her sake that it works out. If it doesn't, she may find herself having to make some awkward reparations."

Taylor Swift's legal team stays watchful of the singer's brand at all times and is apparently quick to threaten to sue if anyone so much as references her work. In September 2015, Allison Kilkenny, host of the "Citizen Radio" podcast, revealed on X (formerly Twitter) that Swift's team sent her a cease-and-desist letter after she discussed the song "Wildest Dreams" on air. According to Business Insider, the song was never actually played, but Kilkenny's then-co-host reportedly recited some of the lyrics on the show. "Yesterday's @CitizenRadio has been deleted. Hey @taylorswift13 are you aware your people are harassing podcasts?" Kilkenny tweeted at the time.

Earlier that year, it was reported that Swift's team threatened legal action against fans who used the phrase "this sick beat" off of the song "Shake it Off" on Etsy items. Even though some of the said sellers were trading the items for the love of it, they were in breach of Etsy's laws on intellectual property, which the e-commerce site made clear in a statement to BuzzFeed. "We take intellectual property and copyright concerns very seriously, and we comply with the DMCA and remove items when we have proper notice," the statement partly read.

Swift's history of protecting her intellectual property also dates back to 2009, when it was reported that her legal team targeted 24 people who allegedly violated some of her unknown and unspecified trademarks by selling fake merchandise. She won an injunction against 16 of the 24 defendants, per The Nashville Post.

Taylor Swift worked with director Joseph Kahn on all the music videos for her sixth studio album, "Reputation." One of those videos was for the song "Delicate," in which Swift, clad in a formal gown at a red-carpet event, becomes invisible and dances around Los Angeles.

Critics quickly noticed the dramatic similarities between the "Delicate" video and a 2016 Spike Jonze-directed ad for the fragrance Kenzo World starring Margaret Qualley. In the ad, Qualley dances and makes many of the same facial expressions as Swift, leaving a formal event to let loose on her own. Even the choreography is similar, though the classically trained ballerina's moves are much more sophisticated than Swift's. Swift and Kahn never commented on the seemingly copycat clip, but the singer quickly released a second video for "Delicate" that features her just singing alone in a one-take video for Spotify.

Creative wars aside, Swift and Qualley are well acquainted. Swift showed up to Qualley and Jack Antonoff's Long Beach Island wedding in August 2023, during which she delivered a 15-minute memory-worthy, side-splitting toast, per Page Six. Swift and Antonoff, of course, have co-created numerous songs.

Leading up to her "Reputation World Tour," Taylor Swift enlisted in Ticketmaster's "verified fan" system, which many loyal Swifties (as well as critics) interpreted as a ploy to make more money. In the program, as The Guardian reported, an algorithm determines whether or not a ticket purchaser is a true fan or a bot or scalper. Whoever the algorithm determines is a "verified fan" is given a priority spot in line to get tickets over anyone else. This doesn't sound terrible in theory, but there's another element at play that left a bad taste in some Swifties' mouths.

The issue was with how fans had to prove their loyalty. Purchasing copies of Swift's "Reputation" album — up to 13 times each — hedged their bets, as did posting about the singer on social media and watching her videos online.

The Swift fan ticket craze didn't die ahead of 2023's "The Eras Tour," either. Swifties swarmed Ticketmaster in millions, thus overwhelming the ticketing agency. "Due to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand, tomorrow's public on-sale for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour has been cancelled," Ticketmaster tweeted. Yet again, the "verified fan" system was put in place, with no clear criteria for selection, which led to grassroot reports that scalpers masquerading as fans were on the loose.

Taylor Swift left Scott Borchetta's record label Big Machine for Republic Records in 2018. Less than a year later, Borchetta told The Wall Street Journal that he sold Big Machine — including the masters of Taylor's first six albums — to Scooter Braun, who used to manage Kanye West.

Taylor responded via a livid Tumblr post that read in part, "When I left my masters in Scott's hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter. Any time Scott Borchetta has heard the words 'Scooter Braun' escape my lips, it was when I was either crying or trying not to." Accusing Braun of "manipulative bullying," she further alleged that Borchetta denied her ownership despite years of asking and never informed her of the sale to Braun.

Borchetta retaliated with his own post on Big Machine Records' website, claiming that he texted Taylor before the news broke and that her father, Scott Swift, who was supposedly a shareholder in the company, was informed a week earlier. Taylor's representative denied this, telling Variety that the singer's father wasn't, in fact, a board member and didn't participate in the final stakeholder call out of a conflict of interest. Taylor's camp further maintained that she originally found out about her masters through the press. Taylor has since taken to re-releasing her music, and as she said on "Late Night with Seth Meyers," "When something says (Taylor's Version) next to it, that means I own it."

After Taylor Swift blasted Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta, a slew of stars jumped to her defense, including Iggy Azalea, Jack Antonoff, Martha Hunt, Todrick Hall, Halsey, and even Spencer Pratt. However, not everyone was on Swift's side. Justin Bieber, who was discovered by Braun, wrote a lengthy missive to Swift on Instagram, apologizing for the screenshot of a video call with Kanye West and Braun that he posted in August 2016 that Swift had addressed in her Tumblr post. However, of Swift pouring her heart out online, Bieber wrote, "What were you trying to accomplish by posting that blog? seems to me like it was to get sympathy u also knew that in posting that your fans would go and bully scooter." Swifties did cyberbully Braun, and some even got suspended for allegedly posting Braun's home address on X (formerly Twitter).

The "Sorry" hitmaker added that he and Braun had no hard feelings toward Swift, and a one-on-one dialogue would have provided a better solution as opposed to an internet war. In November 2020, Braun reportedly sold Swift's masters in a $300 to $450 million deal, per Variety.

As of this writing, the relationship between Bieber and Braun also seems to be headed for the rocks, partially due to the pop star's cancellation of events in the past, per Billboard. Bieber has been said to have axed his agency, CAA and legal representative, although he and Braun still have a contractual agreement, as of the fall of 2023.

Prior to Scooter Braun's divorce from Yael Cohen, the latter weighed in on the Swift-Braun row. Cohen backed up Scott Borchetta's claims and referenced Kim Kardashian's alleged evidence against Swift in the "Famous" scandal, in addition to addressing the singer's bullying allegations. "And girl, who are you to talk about bullying?" Cohen expressed via Instagram. "The world has watched you collect and drop friends like wilted flowers. My husband is anything but a bully, he's spent his life standing up for people and causes he believes in."

A member of Big Machine's board of directors, Erik Logan, also accused Swift of both hypocrisy and outright lying about the sale of Big Machine to Braun, and fiercely defended Borchetta. He also made claims that Swift was oblivious to the business side of music. Logan wrote in a since-deleted letter on X (formerly Twitter), "Somewhere you have told a story to yourself that you have the right to change history, facts and re-frame every any story you want to fix with any narrative you wish."

Just like Cohen, he accused Swift of bullying, writing, "I also find it very interesting your use of the word bully. As I watch you attempt to re-write history and parse words, all from your massive platform, I'm reminded that's what a real bully would do."

Taylor Swift released her critically acclaimed studio album "1989" in 2014. Amid bops like "Shake it Off" and "Blank Space," attention was drawn to the fury-filled smash hit "Bad Blood." Speaking with Rolling Stone prior to the album's release, Swift revealed that the song was about another top-charting female artist whose name she withheld. "She did something so horrible," she explained. "... It had to do with business. She basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour. She tried to hire a bunch of people out from under me." These two, Swift added, shared a somewhat hot-and-cold friendship prior to the incident.

A day after Swift's interview, "Roar" hitmaker Katy Perry made a cryptic tweet that read, "Watch out for the Regina George in sheep's clothing." She would later term it as a retaliation in honor of her character in a Billboard cover story prior to her 2015 Super Bowl halftime show act. The "Bad Blood" music video would debut at the Billboard Music Awards later that year, with a star-studded cast that added fuel to the fire.

Swift claimed to GQ that October that the song wasn't aimed toward any particular individual. Perry, however, confirmed the feud on "The Late Late Show with James Corden." "I tried to talk to her about it and she wouldn't speak to me," Perry, who seemingly hit back via "Swish Swish" in 2017, claimed. "... It was a full shutdown and then she writes a song about me." Luckily, they mended fences in Swift's 2019 "You Need to Calm Down" music video.

In July 2015, the MTV Video Music Awards nominations list was unveiled. Taylor Swift was over the moon when "Bad Blood" landed the coveted video of the year nomination and took to X (formerly Twitter) to urge her fans to vote. Following the release, Nicki Minaj wasn't impressed that the videos for her popular songs "Anaconda" and "Feeling Myself," the latter featuring Beyoncé, didn't make the cut, and took to the same platform to express her disappointment in a series of tweets.

"If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year," one tweet read. Swift fired back with a direct albeit since-deleted tweet at Minaj: "I've done nothing but love & support you. It's unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot."

In response, an obviously perplexed Minaj insisted that Swift wasn't the target of her tweet. "Huh? U must not be reading my tweets. Didn't say a word about u," the "Super Bass" rapper wrote. "I love u just as much. But u should speak on this." The pair ended the exchange in a heartfelt stage invite by Swift, but it was a follow-up faux beef by nominees Bruno Mars and Ed Sheeran that truly made light of the misunderstanding.

When Taylor Swift first crossed paths with Karlie Kloss at the 2013 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, it was friendship at first sight. "We were just like, 'You. My friend. Now,'" Swift revealed in a joint Vogue interview.

They kicked off a stronger bond months later with an unplanned trip to Big Sur, and their friendship blossomed in the full glare of the cameras. Kloss and Swift dazzled in black-gray outfits for a girls' night out in 2014. Weeks later, Kloss posted a selfie of the duo getting ready for the Met Gala on Instagram. The pair also set tongues wagging when a picture of them supposedly kissing at The 1975 gig made its way to TMZ, and by 2015, the besties reached an all-new height when the model became part of Swift's "Bad Blood" video cast ensemble.

On Vogue's "73 Questions" in 2018, Kloss said she was still on good terms with Swift. However, the singer notably didn't show up to Kloss and Joshua Kushner's double nuptials, whose attendance included Swift's nemesis, Scooter Braun. Swifties also pointed out that the bonus song "It's Time to Go," off of Swift's 2021 album "Evermore," had lyrics that may have hinted at the ending of their friendship. "When the words of a sister come back in whispers / That prove she was not in fact what she seemed / Not a twin from your dreams / She's a crook who was caught," Swift sings. Needless to say, fans were shocked when Kloss attended an "Eras Tour" concert in August 2023.