A timeline of Taylor Swift's

feud with Kanye West and

Kim Kardashian
All the way from 'I'mma let you finish' to the potential Kanye digs on
Reputation, and more
Taylor Swift's feud with
Kanye West and
Kim Kardashian
• Taylor Swift's feud with Kanye West
and Kim Kardashian goes back a whole
decade, and offers twists and turns that
no one saw coming. It all started at the
MTV VMAs in September 2009, when
Kanye interrupted Taylor's acceptance
speech, and has bubbled behind closed
doors - and in right in front of our eyes -
ever since. Here's a complete timeline of
the shade you need to know about,
starting with the latest update.
6th December 2023

• Taylor Swift opens up about the infamous phone

call again to TIME magazine, commenting that it
"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."

• She added, "I thought that moment of backlash

was going to define me negatively for the rest of
my life."
• Check out the timeline of their full feud by hitting
any button.
13th September 2009
• It begins. On this fateful date in New York City, a 19-year-
old Taylor Swift was at the MTV Video Music Awards,
accepting the Best Female Video award for unrequited love
anthem 'You Belong with Me'. During her cute acceptance
speech, Kanye West jumped up on the stage and grabbed the
mic, interrupting with the now-immortal words: "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!"
• If you Google the words "sad kitten", you'll get a pretty good
approximation of what Taylor's face looked like during this
whole fiasco, while MTV's cameras cut to Beyonce herself
looking horrified in the audience. Once Kanye had shrugged
and handed the mic back to Taylor, her time was up.
• Nobody was impressed. President
Obama famously called Kanye "a
jackass" over the incident. Even
Katy Perry, now widely known as
the subject of Swift's diss-track 'Bad
Blood', was not on board: "F***
you, Kanye. It's like you stepped on
a kitten," she tweeted, which is
pretty much as accurate as metaphors
get.
• Kanye was promptly kicked out,
while Beyonce used her Video of the
Year win later in the evening as an
opportunity to bring Swift back on
stage, and let her finish her speech.
Because no matter how trying the
circumstances, Beyonce remains a
flawless human being.
15th September 2009

• A contrite Kanye appears on

The Jay Leno Show, admitting "It was
rude, period. I don't try to justify it,
'cause I was in the wrong. Dealing with
the fact that I hurt someone or took
anything away, you know, from a
talented artist – or from anyone –
because I only wanted to help people.
• "My entire life, I've only wanted to do
and give something that I felt was right
and I immediately knew in this situation
that it was wrong."
• Meanwhile, Taylor addresses the incident
on The View: "My overall thought process
was something like: 'Wow, I can't believe I
won, this is awesome, don't trip and fall, I'm
gonna 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 gonna get to thank the
fans.'" She also confirms that Kanye has not
reached out to her to apologise.
• Following her appearance on The View,
Kanye calls Taylor personally to apologise.
"He was very sincere in his apology, and I
accepted that apology," she said.
4th September
2010
• Kanye apologises publicly via the then-
exciting-and-new social media platform of
Twitter: "I'm sorry, Taylor," he wrote.
"We're both artists, and the media and
managers are trying to get between us. She
deserves the apology more than anyone.
Thank you [Twitter co-founders] Biz
Stone and Evan Williams for creating a
platform where we can communicate
directly." During the heartfelt barrage of
tweets, Kanye also reveals he's written a
song for Taylor.
12th September 2010

• … But before we ever get to hear Kanye's

song about Taylor, she releases one about
him. At the 2010 VMAs, Taylor marks the
one-year anniversary of the Kanye fiasco
with a barefoot performance of her brand
new song 'Innocent', which includes the
lyrics "Who you are is not what you did /
You're still an innocent." While fairly
vague, most critics take the lyrics as a tacit
blend of forgiveness and revenge, with
The New York Times dubbing the song "an
extremely savvy insult masquerading as the
high road".
November 2010
• Kanye backtracks on his apology in
several separate interviews, claiming
that interrupting Taylor was "selfless"
and not arrogant on his part, because
she didn't deserve to win the award.
"Taylor never came to my defence at
any interview," he complained,
accusing Swift of exploiting the
incident for publicity.
3rd May 2011
• Taylor and Kanye have at least
publicly buried the hatchet.
On the red carpet at the Met
Costume Institute Gala, "the two
exchanged a studiedly casual,
"down low" high five", but it's
clear things are still strained.
25th October 2012

• A Rolling Stone profile reveals that Swift has a

memento of the VMAs moment in her Nashville
home: "Above the fireplace, which is
emblazoned with a small heart, there's even a
photo of the moment Kanye stormed her VMA
stage (captioned, "Life is full of little
interruptions," a phrase that's also in the liner
notes of her last album), right next to what is
presumably the actual award in question under
glass."
11th June 2013
• Kanye all-but officially takes back his
apology, telling The New York Times
that he only apologised in the first
place because he'd caved to peer
pressure. "I don't have one regret," he
says of the VMAs incident.
February 2015
• A new leaf has been seriously turned over.
Not only are Taylor and Kanye super-pally
backstage at the 2015 Grammys, but there
are rumours of a collaboration, following
Taylor's final transition out of country and
into pop with 1989.
• "She wants to get in the studio and we're
definitely going to go in," Kanye tells Ryan
Seacrest. "I don't have an elitism about
music, I don't discriminate." A few days after
the Grammys, the pair are seen grabbing
dinner together at New York hotspot The
Spotted Pig, adding grist to that rumor mill.
August 2015

• At the 2015 VMAs, six years after the little

interruption that started it all, Taylor presents
Kanye with the Video Vanguard Award, the most
public confirmation yet of their newfound
alliance.
September 2015

• Forget musical collaboration – Kanye and Taylor

literally want to rule the world together. Or at
least America. After Kanye announces his plans
to run for President in 2020, Taylor volunteers as
his running mate.
• "Awww Kanye sent me the coolest
flowers!! #KanTay2020 #BFFs"
• …Which would still make 2020 less wacky than
the 2016 election.
11th February 2016
• Just when it's all going so well… Kanye
debuts a new track by the name of
'Famous', and its lyrics include the
following: "I feel like me and Taylor
might still have sex / Why? I made that
bitch famous."
• Yikes. Kanye claims that he sought
Taylor's approval before the song's
release: "I called Taylor and had a hour
long convo with her about the line and
she thought it was funny and gave her
blessings."
• Taylor's camp immediately denies this in a
statement, claiming that Kanye hadn't run the
lyrics past Taylor, but had instead asked her to
promote the song: "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, "I made
that bitch famous.’”
• While Taylor herself stays silent, several
members of her #squad leap to her defence, while
her brother Austin posts a video in which he
throws his Yeezys in the trash.
15th February 2016

• Another awards show, another landmark moment in the

KanTay saga. After Taylor wins Album of the Year
for 1989, she swipes back at Kanye in what can only be
described as a perfect real-life subtweet.
• "As the first woman to win Album of the Year at the
Grammys twice, I want to say to all the young women out
there—there are going to be people along the way who are
going to try to undercut your success or take credit for your
accomplishments or your fame," Swift said, naming
absolutely no names.
• "But 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 greatest feeling in the world."
March 2016
• Is the feud over? Not
even close, says Chrissy
Teigen: "I'll tell you, it's
not over. This is going to
go on. This is being
waged."
16th June 2016

• …Yeah, that didn't take long. Just as Chrissy predicted, this feud
will probably outlive all of us, especially now that it's evolved
and mutated into a feud triangle. Kim Kardashian West stepped
into the fray during a GQ interview in June, echoing Kanye's
claim that Taylor had given her blessing to those 'Famous' lyrics,
and later backtracked in order to play the victim.
• "She totally approved that," Kim said. "She wanted to all of a
sudden act like she didn't. I swear, my husband gets so much shit
for things [when] he really was doing proper protocol and even
called to get it approved."
• And it didn't stop there – Kim went on to claim that the phone
conversation in question, where Taylor approved the lyrics, had
been recorded on camera.
• "And then they sent an attorney's letter like 'Don't you dare do
anything with that footage,' and asking us to destroy it."
• We're gonna need to see those receipts, Kim.
25th June 2016

• Kanye being Kanye, the music video for 'Famous' was

always going to add more fuel to the feud fire, but nobody
quite saw this coming.
• The video begins with a shot of Kanye and Kim asleep in
bed, and pans outwards to reveal a naked Taylor asleep on
the other side of Kanye. Also snoozing nude in this bizarre
fictional bed: Rihanna, Chris Brown, Donald Trump,
Caitlyn Jenner, George W Bush, Anna Wintour, Ruby Rose,
Ray J and Bill Cosby. Taylor is noticeably positioned right
next to Kanye, which becomes even creepier in light of the
"might still have sex" lyric.
• The celebrities were all confirmed to be lifelike waxworks
rather than the real deal, but it remained unclear how many
had agreed to their depictions in the video.
28th June 2016

• Although there was no response from the Swift camp, one of Taylor's many
BFFs Lena Dunham leapt to her defence in a justifiably
angry Facebook post, which slammed the video for its apparent
legitimisation of rape culture.
• "Now I have to see the prone, unconscious, waxy bodies of famous women,
twisted like they've been drugged and chucked aside at a rager?" Dunham
wrote. "I'm sure that Bill Cosby doll being in the bed alongside Donald
Trump is some kind of statement… I don't have a hip, cool reaction,
because seeing a woman I love like Taylor Swift (fuck that one hurt to look
at, I couldn't look), a woman I admire like Rihanna or Anna [Wintour],
reduced to a pair of waxy breasts made by some special effects guy in the
Valley, it makes me feel sad and unsafe and worried for the teenage girls
who watch this and may not understand that grainy roving camera as the
stuff of snuff films."
• Elsewhere, the question on everyone's lips was whether Taylor – or any of
the celebrities in question – would grant Kanye's wish and sue over the
video.
18th July 2016

• The plot massively thickens. Kanye's wife Kim Kardashian

starts teasing that her Twitter followers should start
following her on Snapchat also, where she later drops the
BIGGEST of bombshells:
a secret recording of Taylor Swift's phone conversation
with Kanye, seemingly agreeing to the use of her name etc
on his song Famous. The words "respect" and "friends" are
also thrown around a lot in the conversation (mainly by
Taylor).
• Taylor insists she was never consulted about the fact she's
referred to as a "bitch" in the song, saying she had never
heard the lyric, 'I made that bitch famous'. The recording
Kim released does not include this lyric, either.
• Taylor then posts an Instagram note saying she doesn't want
to be involved in this "narrative" and never has done since
it began in 2009.
30th May 2017

• Kim Kardashian reignites the

feud by saying that
Kendall Jenner was never in Ta
ylor's squad
, so there was no awkwardness
over the Famous debacle. But
Kendall was totally in the
squad, right?
18th July 2017

• It's been a whole year since

Kimmy K called out Taylor
Swift for lying about her
knowledge of Kanye West's
'Famous' lyrics, and people
are celebrating hard on
Twitter. Someone grab the
party poppers!
21st August 2017

• Taylor starts posting videos of snakes on her Insta

gram.
This is particularly odd seeing as she
deleted everything from her social media just day
s before.
• Is this all to do with Kim and Kanye fans posting
snake emojis all over her Instagram and Twitter
when all that nasty 'Famous' business was going
on? It sure looks like it.
23rd August
2017
• Taylor announces that
she's releasing a new album in N
ovember
. But have we seen that font
before?
It sure reminds us of Kanye's
Saint Pablo tour merch...
25th August 2017

• https://youtu.be/3K0RzZGpyds
• Taylor drops the first single from her sixth album Reputation, 'Look
What You Made Me Do'. Certain lyrics definitely lend themselves to
potentially being about her feud with Kimye, such as:
• "I don't like your little games / Don't like your tilted stage / The role
you made me play / Of the fool / No, I don't like you"

• Does the tilted stage bit remind anyone else of Kanye's Saint Pablo
Tour staging? Hmm.
• "I'm sorry. The old Taylor can't come to the phone right now. Why?
Oh, 'cause she's dead!"

• Y'all remember when Kim called Taylor out on Twitter over the
whole 'Famous' debacle and an RIP Taylor Swift mural from
Melbourne went viral? Inteeeresting.
27th August
2017

• Taylor premieres the

new video for 'Look
What You Made Me
Do', and fans think
there are some less-
than subtle references
to the Kanye/Kim feud,
thanks to the snake
rings.
5th October 2017

• Idris Elba comments on the ongoing beef, admitting

that he felt hella awks when he had to present an
award with Taylor at the 2016 Met Gala.
• Speaking to the New York Times, Idris said: "It was
a bit awkward because Taylor Swift and I had to
present an award. We were walking through the
crowd and obviously, there was a little beef between
Taylor and Kanye. I didn't know any of this. But I
was there! And I was, like, 'Oh, this is awks.'"
10th November 2017

• Taylor releases her much-anticipated album Reputation, and boy do

fans have A LOT of theories about what the songs are about?! Along
with theories about there being songs about Taylor's exes Calvin
Harris and Tom Hiddleston, fans also think not one but TWO songs
are about Taylor's feud with Kanye and Kim.
• Firstly, in 'I Did Something Bad', lyrics include, "They're burning all
the witches even if you aren't one / They got their pitchforks and
proof / Their receipts and reasons"
• This seems like a definite nod to Taylor Swift's public feud with
Kimye, right? Specifically, referencing 'receipts' as a nod to Kim's
recording of Taylor.
• Fans are convinced this lyric is about Taylor's friendship with Kim
and Kanye, as despite Kanye crashing the stage at the MTV VMAs
in 2009 to tell the world Beyoncé deserved to win Best Female Video
over Taylor, the three of them went on to be friends, and were even
pictured bonding at red carpet events together. And then, er, '
Famous' happened.
Sponsor Break!!!!!!!

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29th March 2018

• Taylor's BFF Lorde covers two of Kanye's songs,

which seems a bit weird, right? Not only did Lorde
cover an a cappella version of 'Love Lockdown' she
sang 'Runaway' during a show in Rosemont, Illinois.
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•
To be fair, this isn't the first time she's played
Kanye's music on stage — plus, back in 2014 she
called him her "idol." But still... Taylor's gonna be
pisssssssed.
7th March 2019
• Taylor reignites the feud with Kim and Kanye, referring to them as 'bullies' who
started an internet hate campaign against her.
• "In my experience, I've come to see that bullies want to be feared and taken
seriously," she said in the April issue of Elle Magazine. "A few years ago, someone
started an online hate campaign by calling me a snake on the internet. The fact that so
many people jumped on board with it led me to feeling lower than I've ever felt in my
life."
• The singer went on to detail how she reclaimed the snake comparison by introducing
a mammoth inflatable cobra named Karyn - note the K - to her tour shows.
• "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 continued. "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, but maybe all
I'll ever get is the satisfaction of knowing I could survive it, and thrive in spite of it."
13 August 2019
• Almost 10 years after their feud began, Taylor Swift opened up toVogue
about how being 'cancelled' by Kim Kardashian 'changed her life'.
• "A mass public shaming, with millions of people saying you are quote-
unquote cancelled, is a very isolating experience," she commented. "I don’t
think there are that many people who can actually understand what it’s like to
have millions of people hate you very loudly. When you say someone is
cancelled, it’s not a TV show.
• "It’s a human being. You’re sending mass amounts of messaging to this person
to either shut up, disappear, or it could also be perceived as, Kill yourself."
• Taylor then opened up about how the 'cancelling' impacted her everyday life,
encouraging her to create the album Reputation. "I realised I needed to
restructure my life because it felt completely out of control," she added. "I
knew immediately I needed to make music about it because I knew it was the
only way I could survive it. 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."
5th November 2019

• The same week Kanye West released his

album Jesus Is King, Kim Kardashian
shared a video listening to Taylor
Swift's latest album, Lover.
• Seeing as Kim was on a work shoot, she
might not have had control complete
control of the playlist or been aware that
Taylor was playing. But then again, this
is Kim Kardashian we're talking about.
Is this proof the feud is well and truly
over?
22nd March 2020

• We thought the feud was over. We thought

wrong. Out of nowhere, an alleged unedited
version of the conversation between Taylor Swift
and Kanye West has been leaked – and it appears
to prove that Tay Tay was telling the truth all
along.
• The video seems to show Taylor authorising 'I
feel like me and Taylor might still have sex' as a
lyric, but not hearing the 'I made that bitch
famous' part - something she has alway denied
approving.
24 March 2020
• Kim responded to the leaked video of an unedited
version of the call between Kanye and Taylor, insisting:
"Taylor Swift has chosen to reignite an old exchange -
that at this point in time feels very self-serving given
the suffering millions of real victims are facing right
now. I didn't feel that need to comment a few days ago,
and I'm actually really embarrassed and mortified to be
doing it right now, but because she continues to speak
on it, I feel I'm left without a choice but to respond
because she is actually lying.
• Kim continued. "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. At the
time when they spoke the song had not
been fully written yet, but as everyone
can see in the video, she manipulated
the truth of their actual conversation in
her statement when her team said she
"declined and cautioned him about
releasing a song with such a strong
misogynistic message."
• "The lie was never about the
word bitch, it was always
whether there was a call or
not and the tone of the
conversation. I never edited
the footage (another lie) - I
only posted a few clips to
Snapchat to make my point
and the full video that
recently leaked doesn't
change the narrative."
• "To add, Kanye as an artist has every right to
document his musical journey and process, just like
she recently did through her documentary. Kanye has
documented the making of all his albums for his
personal archive. however has never released any of
it for public consumption and the call between the
two of them would have remained private or would
have gone in the trash had she not lied and forced me
to defend him." "This will be the last time I speak on
this because honestly, nobody cares. Sorry to bore
you all with this. I know you are all dealing with
much more serious and important matters.“
• It goes on.
16th December 2021 -
Kim discusses Taylor in a
new interview
• It's been well over 18 months since the last
update on Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's
feud with Taylor Swift, with Kim's March 2020
comments focusing on Kanye's mention of
Taylor in his 'Famous' song lyrics.
• Fast forward to December 2021, and Kim has
been discussing Taylor again - though this time
things are (thankfully) more positive.
• Speaking candidly during a new in-depth
interview on the Honestly podcast with host
Bari Weiss, Kim was met with a question about
the singer.
• In a lightning question round
towards the end of the podcast
episode, Weiss asked Kim,
"What's your favourite Taylor
Swift album?"
• It turns out Kim only had good
things to say, replying, "I really
like a lot of her songs. They're all
super cute and catchy. I'd have to
look in my phone to get a name
[of an album]."
• Well, there you have it. Looks like
Kim is a fan of Taylor's music
after all.
27th January 2022
• Observant fans have come up with a theory that Taylor is about to
release the album she was working on - and scrapped - at the time
her feud with Kanye began.
•
The theory comes from TikToker The Thrifty Swiftie, who
explained in a recent video that typically Taylor would release an
album every two years, but two years on from 1989 just when a new
release was expected the feud with Kanye began and no album
came.
You'll remember that it was around this time that the whole Kimye x
Taylor drama really kicked off. Well, according to The Thrifty
Swiftie, if you look closely at this shot from Taylor's 'The Man'
video, the word 'Karma' appears between 1989 and Reputation.
Leading fans to think this is the missing album from that time.
• Plus, there's a 'missing' poster next to the graffiti, so, fans have
always believed "Karma" is the missing album.
• Well, now they think 2022 is the year we'll hear it. According to the
TikToker more than 20 new songs are expected this year all coming
"from the vault" for 1989, all of which makes sense when you think
that Taylor has previously mentioned Karma being locked in a vault.
There's a lot more investigation into this in The Thrifty Swiftie's
other videos on the theory, and honestly it's all very convincing.
 Thanks for watching the
“short” presentation!
We can only imagine just how juicy this album “Karma” will be...