A timeline of Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian’s feud that led to the song “thanK you aIMee”
Keeping up with Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian’s feud is no easy feat.
The Grammy-winning singer and reality star have been at odds since 2016 — and Swift fanned the flames of their feud with her 2024 album, “Tortured Poets Oath: The Anthology.”
However, before they started butting heads, Kardashian shared her “love” for the pop star on “Entertainment Tonight” in 2009 and described herself as her “biggest fan.”
Three years later, the pair posed for smiling photos together at the MTV Video Music Awards. They did the same at the 2015 awards show, and even hugged each other at the Grammy Awards that year.
Their friendship seemed unlikely, as Kardashian’s then-husband, Kanye West, interrupted Swift’s acceptance speech during the 2009 VMAs.
Now that Swift and Kardashian are at loggerheads again, Page Six is breaking down their nearly decade-long feud.
June 2016
West said he would “probably still have s*x” with Swift and “make that b***h famous” in his song “Famous” in February 2016 — and when she objected to the lyrics, Kardashian weighed in on the scandal.
The “Kardashians” star claimed in June 2016 that West followed “proper protocol” and received “approval” from Swift, telling GQ: “She absolutely knew it was going to come up. She just wanted to suddenly act like she didn’t do it.”
Kardashian continued to shade the singer on social media, and her fans followed suit with snake emojis.
Swift’s rep then called “many” of Kardashian’s comments “untrue.”
The spokesman explained, “Taylor does not hold anything against Kim Kardashian, because she understands the pressure that Kim must be subjected to and that she is only repeating what Kanye West told her.”
July 2016
The “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” alum explained why she “wanted to defend” West on a July 2016 episode of her family’s E! Reality show.
“I never talk about anyone publicly, especially in interviews,” she said. “But I…it was like that.”
When Kris Jenner pushed her daughter to call Swift and apologize, Kardashian responded: “Thank you for your beautiful advice, but I won’t take it.”
The Skims creator continued to publicly release clips of West’s phone call with Swift via Snapchat, with the “Shake It Off” singer calling the “s*x” line a “compliment.”
“If people asked me about it, I think it would be cool for me to say, ‘He called me and told me before he went out.’ … Joke on you guys. We’re fine,” she said at the time.
However, Swift’s rep clarified that she was unaware of the line saying West is making “that b***h famous.”
“That never happened,” Swift herself explained via Instagram. “You can’t ‘approve’ a song you haven’t heard. To paint me as a liar when I didn’t get the full story or play any part of the song is character a*sa*sination.”
She added: “You can’t control someone’s emotional response when they call you ‘that b***h’ in front of the whole world.”
August 2017
Swift’s November 2017 album “Reputation” was widely believed to be a revenge record amid her feud with Kardashian and West — and her “Look What You Made Me Do” music video seems to prove that.
The footage, released in August of that year, showed previous versions of Swift, including the then-19-year-old holding up her award in confusion when West interrupted her at the VMAs.
In the video, as well as in her promotion for the album, she constantly used snake imagery to reference the snake emoji that Kardashian fans left in the comments section when the phone call was released.
January 2019
Kardashian claimed she was “over” the feud during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in January 2019.
“I feel like we’ve all moved on,” the Hulu personality claimed.
However, elsewhere in the interview, Kardashian said she would rather be stuck in an elevator with Drake, another of West’s enemies, than Swift.
March 2019
While speaking to Elle in March 2019 about being called an “internet snake” and reclaiming those photos through Reputation, she hinted that Kardashian has yet to apologize.
“It would be nice if we could get an apology from the people who bully us,” the “Bad Blood” singer told the magazine. “But maybe all I’ll get is the satisfaction of knowing I can survive and thrive in spite of it.”
“Getting rid of the petty bullying someone experiences can be as simple as learning to laugh,” she noted.
March 2020
Swift and West’s full phone call was leaked online in March 2020, with the Yeezy creator saying: “I’m going to send you the song and send you the exact wording and everything about it, right?” And then we can sit down and talk through it.
In her response on Instagram Story, Swift doubled down on her claim that the call was “illegally recorded” and “edited and manipulated in order to trap her.”
Kardashian clapped back later the same day, claiming that “no one has ever denied that the word ‘b***h’ was used without her permission.”
December 2021
Kardashian was asked about her favorite Swift record on a December 2021 episode of the “Honestly with Bari Weiss” podcast.
“I really like a lot of her songs,” she said at the time. “They are all very nice and attractive.”
“She’s going to have to look inward,” the makeup mogul noted [her] Phone to get name [of an album],” althoug.
January 2023
In January 2023, Kardashian and West’s eldest daughter, North West, danced to Swift’s song “Shake It Off” in a TikTok video.
Swift appeared to be referencing what was uploaded to social media in her April 2024 video titled “thanK you aIMee.”
“One day,” she cried, “your baby comes home singing / A song that only the two of us will know about you.”
December 2023
Swift reignited the controversy when she was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year in December 2023.
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“It took me psychologically to a place I had never been before,” she recalled. “I moved to a foreign country. I didn’t leave a rented house for a year. I was afraid to make phone calls.
“I’ve pushed away most of the people in my life because I don’t trust anyone anymore. I felt really, really sad,” Swift continued, comparing it to “career death.”
April 2024
Fans were quick to notice the capitalization in the title of the song “thanK you aIMee” in April 2024, thinking that the song about a high school bully was actually about Kardashian.
Swift pointed out a “spray-tanned bronze” woman in the path her mother desired[es] “We are dead.”
“All that time you were throwing punches, I was building something,” she sang. “And I can’t forgive the way you made me feel / I screamed ‘f**k you, Amy’ at the night sky as the blood flowed / But I can’t forget the way you made me heal.”