Taylor Swift Says ‘The World Didn’t Understand the Context’ of *That* Phone Call With Kanye West

Telling her side of the story. Taylor Swift dished about her infamous feud and phone call with Kanye West during an interview with Rolling Stone magazine. “The world didn’t understand the context and the events that led up to it,” the 29-year-old pop star told the outlet, which was published on Wednesday, September 18. “Because nothing ever just happens like that without some lead-up. Some events took place to cause me to be pissed off when he called me a bitch. That was not just a singular event.”

In 2009, Kanye, 42, interrupted Taylor’s speech after she won Best Female Video at the VMAs, however it seemed like they were able to move past the drama a few years later. “I started to feel like we reconnected, which felt great for me because all I ever wanted my whole career after that thing happened in 2009 was for him to respect me,” she said. “When someone doesn’t respect you so loudly and says you literally don’t deserve to be here — I just so badly wanted that respect from him, and I hate that about myself, that I was like, ‘This guy who’s antagonizing me, I just want his approval.’ But that’s where I was.”

The Pennsylvania native continued to give details about their relationship outside of the spotlight. “And so, we’d go to dinner and stuff. And I was so happy because he would say really nice things about my music,” she recalled. “It just felt like I was healing some childhood rejection or something from when I was 19. But the 2015 VMAs come around. He’s getting the Vanguard Award. He called me up beforehand ­— I didn’t illegally record it, so I can’t play it for you. But he called me up, maybe a week or so before the event, and we had maybe over an hourlong conversation, and he’s like, ‘I really, really would like for you to present this Vanguard Award to me, this would mean so much to me,’ and went into all the reasons why it means so much because he can be so sweet. He can be the sweetest.”

Then, Taylor discussed the beginning of the end of their friendship. “And I was so stoked that he asked me that,” she said. “And so, I wrote this speech up, and then we get to the VMAs, and I make this speech, and he screams, ‘MTV got Taylor Swift up here to present me this award for ratings!’ And I’m standing in the audience with my arm around his wife, and this chill ran through my body. I realized he is so two-faced. That he wants to be nice to me behind the scenes, but then he wants to look cool, get up in front of everyone and talk s—t. And I was so upset.”

She continued, “He wanted to come talk to me after the event in his dressing room. I wouldn’t go. So, then he sent this big, big thing of flowers the next day to apologize. And I was like, ‘You know what? I really don’t want us to be on bad terms again. So, whatever, I’m just going to move past this.’ So, when he gets on the phone with me, and I was so touched that he would be respectful and, like, tell me about this one line in the song. And I was like, OK, good. We’re back on good terms.”

In 2016, the rapper released the tune with controversial lyrics about the “Lover” crooner in his single “Famous.” In the song, he raps the lyrics, “For all my Southside n—gas that know me best / I feel like and Taylor might have sex / Why, I made that bitch famous / Goddamnn // I made that bitch famous.”

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Naturally, Taylor was upset. “And then when I heard the song, I was like, ‘I’m done with this. If you want to be on bad terms, let’s be on bad terms, but just be real about it,’” she revealed. “I don’t want to just talk about negative s—t all day, but it’s the same thing.”

However, Taylor revealed she never actually approved the lyrics, despite Kanye claiming he taped the phone call with her permission. “Basically, I got really sick of the dynamic between he and I. And that wasn’t just based on what happened on that phone call and with that song — it was kind of a chain reaction of things,” she confessed.

These days, Taylor is thriving since her seventh album, Lover, is all over the music charts. Sounds like the Grammy winner can ~shake off~ this drama for good.