Taylor Swift Details ‘Isolating’ and ‘Humiliating’ Feud With Kim Kardashian

Taylor Swift is back in the spotlight again — well, she never really left — as she continues on her press tour leading up to the release of her seventh studio album, Lover, on Aug. 23. Her latest appearance comes in an interview with Vogue, where she opened up about many of the headlines she’s been involved in over the years, one of which was her feud with reality star, Kim Kardashian.

Three years ago, Kardashian started a social media war with Swift after the lyrics of Kanye West’s songs, “Famous,” rehashed the country-turned-pop star’s on-stage incident with West. After a back and forth, Kardashian would end up calling Swift “a snake” and shared incriminating videos of Swift apparently giving West the O.K. to reference her.

Kardashian’s followers then went on the attack towards Swift and the rest became a social media firestorm that kept the feud at the forefront for weeks.

Swift opened up in the Vogue interview about her recollection of those events.

“A mass public shaming, with millions of people saying you are quote-unquote canceled, is a very isolating experience,” Swift explained in the interview. “I don’t think there are that many people who can actually understand what it’s like to have millions of people hate you very loudly. When you say someone is canceled, it’s not a TV show. It’s a human being. You’re sending mass amounts of messaging to this person to either shut up, disappear, or it could also be perceived as, kill yourself.”

The incident wound up playing a role in her Reputation album, where Swift referenced West and Kardashian in multiple songs, including “Look What You Made Me Do” and “This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.”

One of the more straightforward references was in the latter song, “It was so nice to be friends again / There I was, giving you a second chance / But then you stabbed my back while shaking my hand / And therin lies the issue / Friends don’t try to trick you / Get you on the phone and mind-twist you / And so I took an axe to a mended fence.”

Clearly this was a not-so-subtle reference to the two’s incident at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.

“I realized I needed to restructure my life because it felt completely out of control,” Swift said to Vogue. “I knew immediately I needed to make music about it because I knew it was the only way I could survive it. It was the only way I could preserve my mental health and also tell the story of what it’s like to go through something so humiliating.”

The singer also utilized the snake reference by Kardashian during her world tour for Reputation and incorporated into her music video for “ME!”

Swift is set to release her album in the coming weeks. The first few singles of the song have already found success on the charts. “ME!”, “You Need To Calm Down” and “The Archer” have all gone over well with her fan base.

Photo credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Amazon