March 2020
A full video of the phone call between Taylor and Ye was leaked online and fans immediately noted that it never showed Ye informing Taylor of the “bitch” lyric.
Taylor responded to the leak on her Instagram Story amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “Instead of answering those who are asking how I feel about the video footage that was 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 my fans through hell for 4 years)… SWIPE UP to see what really matters.”
Kim responded and accused Taylor of “lying” about the situation. “The only issue I ever had around the situation was that Taylor lied through her publicist who stated that ‘Kanye never called to ask permission…’ They clearly spoke so I let you all see that. Nobody ever denied that the word bitch was used without her permission. At the time they spoke the song had not been fully written yet, but as everyone can see in the video, she manipulated the truth of their actual conversation in her statement when her team said she ‘declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message.’ The lie was never about the word bitch, it was always whether there was a call or not and the tone of the conversation. I never edited the footage (another lie) – I only posted a few clips on Snapchat to make my point and the full video that recently leaked doesn’t change the narrative.”
Taylor’s publicist, Tree Paine, then reposted her original statement about the situation to clap back at Kim’s message. She pointed out that Kim edited the original PR statement in her above response and did not include the full context of what Tree said about Ye.
For clarity, Tree’s original full statement said, “Kanye did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his song “Famous” on her Twitter account. She declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a misogynistic message. Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyric, ‘I made that bitch famous.’” As many fans pointed out, Tree never said that Ye didn’t call Taylor at all. Rather, she just clarified the context of what he said on that phone call.