Taylor Swift Calls Out Kim Kardashian in TIME Interview

Taylor Swift is not holding back this time…ready for it?

The Grammy winner, who has officially been deemed TIME's Person of the Year, is calling out Kim Kardashian for her role in the infamous 2016 phone call leak between Taylor and Kanye West regarding his song "Famous."

At the time, Kim—who posted footage of the call on social media—made it look like Taylor had approved the lines "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous," a point Taylor has refuted, arguing she'd never been shared the song in full. (A release of the entire phone conversation four years later showed the original leak to have been edited down, and the "Cruel Summer" artist's claims to be true.) Now, Taylor is revisiting that time in her life—and the toll it took on her. 

"You have a fully manufactured frame job, in an illegally recorded phone call, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out to say to everyone that I was a liar," she told TIME in an interview published Dec. 6. "That took me down psychologically to a place I've never been before." 

photosFamous Celebrity Feuds

She explained, "I moved to a foreign country. I didn't leave a rental house for a year. I was afraid to get on phone calls. I pushed away most people in my life because I didn't trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard."

In the moment, she felt the scandal to be the end of her music career, adding, "Make no mistake—my career was taken away from me."

E! News has reached out to reps for Kim but has not yet heard back.

Gilbert Flores / Contributor & Axelle/Bauer-Griffin / Contributor (Getty Images)

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Around the time of the full conversation's leak in 2020, Kim took to social media to share her feelings, tweeting in part, "@taylorswift13 has chosen to reignite an old exchange […] 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."

But in the years since, Taylor has learned to shake off all the drama. In fact while on her Eras Tour this year, the 33-year-old has made light of the Kanye feud on multiple occasions. 

Between an all-too-real laugh while performing "This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things" off Reputation in July and a quip about being interrupted while on stage during a show in August, Taylor seems to be leaving the noise behind her and instead focusing on the good in her life—including her relationship with boyfriend Travis Kelce. 

(Photo by Gotham/GC Images)

And indeed, her romance with the Kansas City Chiefs tight end has taken center stage for Swifties and NFL fans alike—a level of publicity the Midnights artist isn't shying away from. 

"When you say a relationship is public, that means I'm going to see him do what he loves, we're showing up for each other, other people are there and we don't care," she added to TIME. "The opposite of that is you have to go to an extreme amount of effort to make sure no one knows that you're seeing someone. And we're just proud of each other."

For more on why the NFL star might just be the perfect person for Taylor's love story, keep reading.