Taylor Swift says Kim Kardashian feud in 2016 was ‘career death’

Taylor Swift has opened up on her feud with Kim Kardashian, where a leaked phone call left the star feeling that “my career was taken away from me” and forced her to move abroad.

Named TIME’s Person of the Year today, Swift gave an interview to the outlet about her career highlights and low points, including the 2016 feud with Kanye West and his then wife.

That year, West released a song called Famous, which contained the lyrics “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex, why? I made that b**** famous”.

After long-standing bad blood between the artists, dating back to the infamous 2009 MTV VMAs, West and Swift appeared to be on good terms before the song release as part of his album ‘The Life of Pablo’.

West claimed that Swift approved the lyrics, which she denied.

But amid the row, Kardashian posted a video online of what appeared to be West on the phone with the singer, where Swift appeared to consent to the vulgar lines.

Backlash against Swift was fierce. It later emerged West did not read Swift the full lyrics.

Speaking to TIME for her Person of the Year cover story, Swift called it a “career death” and explained: “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.

“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.”

In a series of posts on Twitter in 2020, Kardashian wrote that the situation between Swift and West “forced me to defend him”.

Seven years after the event and after being awarded the outlet’s honour, Swift told TIME: “This is the proudest and happiest I’ve ever felt, and the most creatively fulfilled and free I’ve ever been.”

The Shake It Off singer beat a range of finalists to take the title, including Barbie, former US President Donald Trump‘s prosecutors and the King.

The 12-time Grammy winner became Spotify’s most-streamed artist globally, with her songs being streamed more than 26 billion times.

Her Eras Tour is set to gross more than $1bn while the film version was the highest-grossing concert film ever.

People Magazine also awarded her the title of 2023’s Most Intriguing Person of the Year while Forbes named her the world’s fifth most powerful woman.