The ever-evolving saga of Kanye West and Taylor Swift‘s public relationship seems to be a nonstop roller-coaster ride, starting with West interrupting Swift’s acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, continuing to their public reconciliation and then devolving all over again thanks to some lightning-rod lyrics and a recorded phone call.
That infamous phone call has even involved West’s now ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, with the reality star claiming in her 2016 GQ cover story that the pop superstar had “approved” of the “Famous” lyric that refers to Swift as a “b—h.” The drama then made its way into an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, with the SKIMS founder defending “talking s–t” about Swift, and insisting that husband West is “always so honest.”
The feud only escalated from there, when in July 2016, Kardashian — who finalized her divorce from West in November 2022 — shared video footage of that recorded call on Snapchat, with the clip seemingly showing Swift considering the “b—h” lyric to be a compliment. The pop superstar fought back, noting that the video never shows her approving of the line in question and that she couldn’t have given the thumbs-up to a song she hadn’t even heard.
The call and the feud continued to make headlines in the coming years, with Swift addressing the situation in a 2019 Rolling Stone profile, and yet another leaked video of the call arriving in 2020 showing that the pop star didn’t give her permission for the “Famous” lyric, and the “Anti-Hero” singer speaking out about how it impacted her life in a TIME profile after being named the magazine’s Person of the Year for 2023.
Take a look back at Taylor Swift and Kanye West’s whirlwind history below, starting with that fateful night in September 2009.
