Taylor Swift Says Leaked Kanye West Video Proves She Was Being Framed

Publish date: 2024-06-29

While calling for charitable contributions amid the crisis, Swift lets loose on the recording "that somebody edited and manipulated in order to frame me and put me, my family, and fans through hell for 4 years."

As a preface to urging fans to donate to the World Health Organization and Feeding America, Taylor Swift stepped into a very different fray Monday afternoon, addressing the video footage that leaked over the weekend of the phone call she had with Kanye West in 2016 to say that its release completely vindicated the position she’d held for the last four years.

In an image posted as part of her Instagram Stories, the singer writes: “Instead of answering those who are asking how I feel about the video footage that leaked, proving that I 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)… SWIPE up to see what really matters.”

What really matters, she adds in an additional image, is donating to organizations that are critical during the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

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“The World Health Organization and Feeding America are some of the organizations I’ve been donating to,” she writes. “If you have the ability to, please join me in donating during this crisis. Swipe up.”

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The “somebody” in Swift’s message presumably refers to Kim Kardashian, who in 2016 went on Snapchat and released about three minutes of snippets out of the 25 minutes of conversation that leaked on Friday, and most likely also her husband, Kanye West, who is seen by Swift fans as having lured her into a trap with the fateful phone call.

Variety previously published a transcript of the complete 25-minute leaked video, which appears to be a complete account of the 2016 conversation between West and Swift, filmed by an associate in his studio, except for the opening moments of the conversation and a moment where the filmer’s battery dies out.

The video and transcript indicate Swift did sign off on the “might still have sex” line, as Kardashian’s excerpts four years ago had indicated, but also that West did not read her the “that bitch” line she vociferously reacted against after his song “Famous” came out. Several times in the conversation, West promises to send her the song when it’s completed, and she asks to hear it at the very end of the call, a request that was never granted after the call, according to Swift’s camp.

Variety reached out to both camps for comment over the weekend. Swift’s team declined to comment and West’s did not respond to a request for comment.

Both Swift and Kardashian did signal they were paying attention to the renewed controversy over the weekend by liking comments on social media that supported their positions.

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