Image Credit: Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock
Taylor Swift rehashed the infamous phone call she had with Kanye “Ye” West in 2016 during her “Person of the Year” cover story with TIME that was published on December 6. In her interview, the 33-year-old music artist claimed that Kim Kardashian edited the leaked recording between her and Ye, 46.
“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,” Taylor claimed. “That took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before.”
The “Karma” singer then pointed out that she “moved to a foreign country” and “didn’t leave a rental house for a year” because of the impact the leaked phone call had on her reputation in the U.S. Not only that, but the trauma from the aftermath weighed down on Taylor.
“I was afraid to get on phone calls,” she added. “I pushed away most people in my life because I didn’t trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard.”
Kanye West confront Taylor Swift onstage at the 2009 VMAs (Shutterstock)
In 2016, Ye released his single “Famous,” which features a diss at Taylor in the lyric, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? / I made that bitch famous.” At the time, he claimed that he had received permission from Taylor to include the lyric. However, the “Look What You Made Me Do” artist made it clear that this wasn’t the case. Kim, 43, then claimed that Taylor gave Ye the go-ahead with the final lyric.
After the back-and-forth between Kim and Ye and Taylor, the “Stronger” rapper dropped the music video for “Famous,” which featured naked sculptures of Kim and Taylor sleeping next to him in a bed. Later that year, Kim released a video via Snapchat of Ye talking to Taylor on the phone while he was writing the song.
At one point in the footage, Taylor was heard noting, “I never would’ve expected you to like tell me about a line in your song. 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.” Later in Kim’s recording, Taylor was heard saying, “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.’”
Taylor, however, doubled down on the fact that she didn’t approve the line, “I made that bitch famous.” Nevertheless, countless “cancel Taylor” hashtags and tweets went viral at the time, and many fans took Ye and Kim’s side in the situation.
After the full transcript from the phone call surfaced online, many Swifties came to Taylor’s defense by pointing out that there were several parts of their conversation that weren’t heard. Taylor, Kim and Ye’s feud dragged on for years, as both sides continued to stand by their own claims.
