Taylor Swift has recalled and opened up about her career death moment when Kim Kardashian released the infamous Kanye phone call in 2016 that can be heard in West's controversial song, 'Famous.'
Swift spoke about the phone call leak during her recent interview with Time on December 6 after being named the publication's 2023 'Person of the Year.'
Taylor Swift Recalls 'Career Death' Moment
In 2016, Kardashian released clips of a conversation between her, West, and Swift, in which the pop star appeared to approve of West's lyrics about her in his song.
West sang, "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / I made that b**** famous." A representative for Swift has denied that Swift approved the lyrics after the release of West's song.
In 2020, an unedited version of the conversation was released, and there was no point in the clip where West mentioned that he would call Swift a "b****" in the song or claim he "made her famous."
Swift said to Time as it looked like she had approved of the lyrics, "Make no mistake - my career was taken away from me." She argued that the phone call impacted her reputation.
She shared that the 2016 phone call affected her mental health, and she even moved to a new home to hide from the attention.
The phone call took her down psychologically to a place she had never been before, so she moved to a foreign country and did not leave a rental house for a year. She added that she was afraid to take phone calls and had pushed away most people because she did not trust anyone anymore.
Kim Kardashian Defends West
In March 2020, when the entire phone conversation between Swift and West was leaked online, Swift accused the rapper and wife of editing and manipulating parts of the phone call.
Swift wrote on her Instagram that the recorded phone call had put her, her family, and fans through hell for four years. Kardashian responded on X, formerly Twitter, "@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."
She said she did not feel the need to comment a few days ago and was embarrassed and mortified to be doing it right now. But as she continued to speak on it, she felt she had no choice but to respond because she was actually lying.
Kardashian explained she never edited the footage of the 2016 call and then went on to explain why she was coming to West's defense.
