Taylor Swift says her award show run in with Kanye West affected her "more than anyone knew".
Taylor Swift for Variety magazine
The 'ME!' hitmaker was famously interrupted by the 'Bound 2' rapper at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2009 when he claimed Beyonce should have won the Best Female Video honour instead and admits the whole incident and subsequent fall out had a huge effect on her.
Reflecting on their feud, she said: "As a teenager who had only been in country music, attending my very first pop awards show, somebody stood up and sent me the message, 'You are not respected here. You shouldn't be here on this stage.' That message was received, and it burrowed into my psyche more than anyone knew ... That can push you one of two ways: I could have just curled up and decided I'm never going to one of those events ever again, or it could make me work harder than anyone expects me to, and try things no one expected, and crave that respect - and hopefully one day get it. But then when that person who sparked all of those feelings comes back into your life, as he did in 2015, and I felt like I finally got that respect [from West], but then soon realised that for him it was about him creating some revisionist history where he was right all along, and it was correct, right and decent for him to get up and do that to a teenage girl."
Following the VMAs drama, Taylor and Kanye seemingly reconciled and ironed out their differences but things turned sour again in 2015 when Kanye "sweetly" asked Taylor to present an award to him at the VMAs - only to tell a very different story on stage. Following the callout, Kanye had quickly apologised and then they had their notorious phone call about his song 'Famous' - in which he raps "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that b***h famous" - and she felt like their friendship was back on track. However, when it was a different story when it was released, Kanye's wife, Kim Kardashian West, subsequently insisted Taylor had approved the lyric.
Taylor has decided to put the whole rollercoaster friendship behind her now and she doesn't "think too hard" about it anymore.
Speaking to Variety magazine for their Sundance 2020 issue, she insisted: "I don't think too hard about this stuff now."
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