Taylor Swift‘s publicist is re-sharing her “unedited” statement regarding the infamous Kanye West phone call.
Over the weekend, the full version of that highly-publicized conversation between Swift and West was leaked online, four years after clips of the conversation were posted to Snapchat by the “Follow God” artist’s wife, Kim Kardashian. During the conversation, West talked to Swift about a then-upcoming song he was getting ready to release called “Famous.” In the song, West has a line that states, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/Why? I made that bitch famous.”
Over the years, Swift has maintained that she was never made aware of the, “I made that bitch famous lyric,” while West claimed that they did discuss the lyrics.
In 2016, Swift’s publicist Tree Paine released a statement, sharing, “Kanye did not 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 bitch famous.'”
After the extended version of the call was released online over the weekend, social media users noted that the line in question was never discussed, leading many to side with Swift and sparking a hashtag #KanyeWestIsOverParty.
On Monday, Swift took to social media to post about “what really matters,” encouraging fans to donate to help the Coronavirus relief efforts.
“Instead of answering those who are asking how I feel about the video footage that leaked,” the singer wrote via Instagram Stories, “proving that I was telling the truth the whole time about *that call* (you know, the one that was illegally recoded that somebody edited, and manipulated in order to frame me and put me, my family, and fans through hell for 4 years)… SWIPE UP to see what really matters.”
Swift then linked to Feeding America, adding, “The World Health Organization and Feeding America are some of the organizations I’ve been donating to. If you have the ability to, please join me in donating during this crisis.”
After seeing Swift’s response, Kardashian took to Twitter to share a series of messages.
“.@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,” Kardashian wrote. “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.”
“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…’ They clearly spoke so I let you all see that. Nobody ever denied the word ‘bitch’ was used without her permission,” Kardashian continued. “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 bitch, It was always whether there was a call or not and the tone of the conversation,” the KKW Beauty founder added.
Stephane Cardinale – Kevin Mazur-Taylor Hill / GettyImages
“I never edited the footage (another lie) – I only posted a few clips on Snapchat to make my point and the full video that recently leaked doesn’t change the narrative,” Kardashian went on to tweet. “To add, Kanye as an artist has every right to document his musical journey and process, just like she recently did through her documentary.”
“Kanye has documented the making of all of his albums for his personal archive, however has never released any of it for public consumption & the call between the two of them would have remained private or would have gone in the trash had she not lied & forced me to defend him,” she noted. “This will be the last time I speak on this because honestly, nobody cares. Sorry to bore you all with this. I know you are all dealing with more serious and important matters.”
In response to Kardashian’s tweets, Swift’s publicist re-shared her original statement.
“I’m Taylor’s publicist and this is my UNEDITED original statement,” Paine tweeted. “Btw, when you take parts out, that’s editing.”
Paine also added, “P.S. who did you guys piss off to leak that video?”