Two sides to every story. Kim Kardashian fired off a series of tweets after Taylor Swift broke her silence about leaked footage of her phone call with Kanye West regarding his song “Famous.”
“@taylorswift13 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,” the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star, 39, began on Twitter on Monday, March 23, referencing the coronavirus pandemic.
“I didn’t feel the 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,” she continued.
Kardashian explained that the “only issue [she] ever had around the situation was that” she felt Swift, 30, had “lied through her publicist who stated that ‘Kanye never called to ask for permission.’” She reiterated that the “Lover” singer and the rapper, 42, “clearly spoke so I let you all see that” on Snapchat in 2016. “Nobody ever denied the word ‘bitch’ was used without her permission” in the lyrics to “Famous,” Kardashian added.
Swift’s publicist, Tree Paine, was quick to respond on Twitter early Tuesday, March 24, to set the record straight about her initial reaction to the drama in 2016. She reposted her “UNEDITED original statement” and asked the E! personality with a laugh, “P.S. who did you guys piss off to leak that video?”
I’m Taylor’s publicist and this is my UNEDITED original statement. Btw, when you take parts out, that’s editing.
P.S. who did you guys piss off to leak that video? 😂😂😂 https://t.co/AtMGUp3t24 pic.twitter.com/EjGDwAdL6O
— Tree Paine (@treepaine) March 24, 2020
The controversy began in April 2016 when West released “Famous,” which included the lyrics, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous,” an apparent nod to his interruption of her acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Three months later, Kardashian took to Snapchat to post clips of the phone call between West and Swift, in which the latter somewhat reluctantly signed off on the “sex” lyric; however, the “Jesus Walks” MC did not inform her about the “bitch” line.
In her Twitter rant on Monday night, Kardashian told fans that “Famous” “had not been fully written yet” at the time of the call.
“But as everyone can see in the video, [Swift] 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,” she wrote.
The Skims founder then clarified that she “never edited the footage” but simply “posted a few clips on Snapchat to make [her] point.” She tweeted that West “has documented the making of all of his albums for his personal archive,” but she felt compelled to release the footage in 2016 “to defend him.”
“This will be the last time I speak on this because honestly, who cares,” Kardashian concluded. “Sorry to bore you all with this. I know you are all dealing with more serious and important matters.”
The drama resurfaced on Friday, March 20, when 25 minutes of West and Swift’s phone call leaked online, giving fans more insight into the nature of their conversation.
The “Shake It Off” songstress addressed the leak on her Instagram Stories earlier on Monday, writing that it proved she “was telling the truth the whole time about *that call* (you know, the one that was illegally recorded, that somebody edited and manipulated in order to frame me and put me, my family, and fans through hell for 4 years).” She ended her post with links to donate to Feeding America and the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
Scroll down to see Kardashian’s tweets in full.