Taylor Lautner reflected on his failure to defend ex-girlfriend Taylor Swift, as Kanye West infamously stormed the stage at the 2009 VMAs. When asked by his wife Taylor Dome during a recent podcast episode of The Squeeze With Taylor Lautner & Taylor Lautner what moment in life he would go back to if he could, the Twilight icon got straight to the point. “Probably the 2009 VMAs, when I presented the award to Taylor,” he said thoughtfully. “And was unaware that the Kanye thing was not a skit.” The two Taylors were actually dating at the time, and as Kanye hopped onto the stage and took the microphone from a stunned and intimidated Swift, Lautner simply stood by.
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“I’m really happy for you, I’m gonna let you finish,” Kanye said during the infamous moment, as Taylor clutched her newly acquired VMA. “But Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!” Amid boos, and a shocked expression from Queen Bey in the audience, he simply handed the microphone back to Swift and left.
Step by step, the newly married Lautner then related how it all happened, and why he didn’t jump in to stand up for her. “So I gave her the award, I took five steps back, and was standing five feet behind her,” he explained. And in the middle of her giving her thank you speech, Kanye jumps up onto the stage. I can barely hear it, I can’t see them. I’m just assuming that this whole thing was a practiced and rehearsed skit. Because why else would Kanye West be jumping up on the stage and interrupting Taylor Swift? It just didn’t make sense.
Lautner even admitted that at one point, he laughed at the spectacle, thinking it was all a joke. “If you look back at it, I’m actually caught like laughing, giggling at him. ‘I can’t hear them, but this is probably really funny right now,'” he quipped. The moment of recognition came quickly, however. “The second she turned back around and I saw her face for the first time, I was like, ‘oh…that wasn’t good.'”
The former high-profile couple dated from August of 2009 to November of 2009. Lautner, now 31, went on to marry Dome, a registered nurse, in a lavish ceremony in November of 2022. They now notably share exactly the same name. Swift, 33, is currently in a serious relationship with British actor Joe Alwyn.