Taylor Swift Fans Declare War on Kim Kardashian

A faction of Taylor Swift fans has taken aim at Kim Kardashian, after the singer spoke out about how she was affected mentally by her feud with the reality star and her now ex-husband Kanye "Ye" West.

Swift, who was named Time's 2023 Person of the Year, spoke with the magazine about a number of elements in her life and career in a wide-ranging cover story. Among the subjects she touched upon was West's 2016 track "Famous," in which he made a vulgar reference to her, which she denied approving.

West, who has since legally changed his name to "Ye," rapped on the track: "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that b**** famous."

He was referring to the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), where he stormed onto the stage after Swift won best female music video. West took the microphone out of Swift's hands to declare that Beyoncé should have won instead.

The moment went down in music history and led to both Swift and West talking about it in interviews and writing songs about it. They eventually reconciled and in 2015, Swift presented West with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the VMAs. However, the release of "Famous" reignited the bad blood between them.

At the time, a spokesperson for Swift told People: "Kanye did not [Swift] 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 b**** famous.'"

Kardashian, who at the time was married to West, responded to Swift's denial by releasing an edited recording of a phone call between the singer and the rapper, which largely led fans to believe otherwise.

A full transcript of the conversation between Swift and West was leaked years later in 2020, showing the rapper did not forewarn the singer that he was planning to use the derogatory term to describe her in the track.

Swift told Time that the backlash she faced at the time felt like "a career death." Further opening up about the experience, she added: "Make no mistake—my career was taken away from me."

"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 said. "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."

Swift went on to release her revenge-themed album Reputation, which was initially met with skepticism on its 2017 release. "I thought that moment of backlash was going to define me negatively for the rest of my life," the star said.

Newsweek has contacted a representative of Kardashian via email for comment.

The interview has led to a number of Swift's fans slamming Kardashian on her social media accounts, as she shares posts completely unrelated to the past feud.

"The Swifties are coming for BLOOD," read one comment on an Instagram post in which Kardashian showcased an ensemble from her Skims line.

"Kim, what you did to Tay affected her mental state," another said. "Your words & actions have consequences to others. Make this right & you will get more respect."

Referencing Kardashian's defense of West, another wrote: "This is a valuable learning moment for all women to not protect your man at all costs—give your man honest feedback when he is not acting right! That's all—and learning from mistakes."

Back in March 2020, Kardashian sought to clarify what went on between the parties when the subject rose to the fore again.

"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...,' she wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "They clearly spoke so I let you all see that. Nobody ever denied the word 'b****' was used without her permission."

X users have now started revisiting the post, with one Swift fan responding this week: "You are a lying sack. Now that the whole call has been released, what do you have to say?"

Several fans have started commenting with snake emojis on Kardashian's social media posts, while a number of others have urged her to issue an apology to Swift.

However, amid the criticism, one X user urged fellow fans not to become bullies in retaliation for Swift's account of her disagreement with Kardashian and West.

"@KimKardashian broke Taylor swift in ways we'll never know but bullying her in return won't take back any of that damage," they wrote, adding that fans should "uphold Taylor's legacy, don't stoop so low!"

In June 2016, Kardashian spoke to GQ about the incident, telling the magazine: "She totally approved that. 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."

"What rapper would call a girl that he was rapping a line about to get approval?" she added.

In the video Kardashian released of West and Swift's phone call, West appears to run the line "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex" past Swift, who responds: "It sounds like a compliment."

Years later, in March 2020, a so-called unedited clip of Swift and West's 2016 phone call leaked on social media. Swift fans took it as vindication that Swift was telling the truth that she never approved the lyric and was not informed about the "made that b**** famous" line.

In a series of X posts, Kardashian wrote that Swift choosing to "reignite an old exchange" felt "very self-serving," accused the musician of "actually lying."

"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...,'" she stated. "They clearly spoke so I let you all see that. Nobody ever denied the word 'b****' 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 b****, It was always whether there was a call or not and the tone of the conversation."