Taylor Swift & Karlie Kloss’ Rocky Friendship Timeline: Everything To Know
As fans buzz that Taylor Swift threw some shade at Karlie Kloss on one of her new songs, we’re breaking down the rise and (apparent) fall of their friendship over the years.
Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss have had some ups and downs in their friendship over the years. Taylor is a singer who skyrocketed to fame when she burst onto the scene as a teenage country star in 2006. She eventually evolved into one of the world’s biggest pop stars. Meanwhile, around the same time, Karlie was beginning her career as a model. By 2013, she reached one of the peaks of the modeling industry when she became a Victoria’s Secret Angel. As both ladies experienced the highs and lows of fame during the same time in their lives, they became fast friends. However, in the years since, there’s been speculation that there had been a fallout between the stars
History Of Taylor Swift & Karlie Kloss’ Friendship
Before Taylor even met Karlie, she put it into the atmosphere that she wanted to be friends with her. “I love Karlie Kloss,” Taylor said in a 2012 Vogue interview. “I want to bake cookies with her!” Karlie was totally down, and responded to the request on Twitter. “Your kitchen or mine?” she tweeted at Taylor. It wouldn’t take long for the pair’s wishes to come true. Taylor and Karlie met at the 2013 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, where Taylor was a performer and Karlie was walking in the show as a model.
After the fashion show, Taylor and Karlie hung out on their own and became fast friends. “We had never met before, but we’re BFFs now,” Karlie told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY in Dec. 2013. “It’s nice to meet another American girl. We’re the same age and she’s so inspiring.” In Feb. 2014, Taylor and Karlie met up again when they both attended the Vanity Fair Oscars After-Party, where they made plans to go on a “spontaneous” adventure together. The girls road tripped to Big Sur that March, and shared several pics from the getaway on social media.
That spring, they got ready for the 2014 Met Gala together, and they even both wore Oscar de la Renta gowns to the high-profile event. Their public outings continued throughout the year, and Karlie was even by Taylor’s side as her date to the 2014 American Music Awards in November. Taylor returned to perform at the 2014 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, and shared some cute moments with Karlie onstage, as well.
In fact, the ladies got so close, that some fans even began to speculate that they were more than friends — which Taylor quickly shut down. “As my 25th birthday present from the media, I’d like for you to stop accusing all my friends of dating me #thirsty,” she wrote on social media. Speaking of Taylor’s birthday, Karlie was obviously one of the friends in attendance at the bash she threw when she turned 25 on Dec. 13.
By Feb. 2015, Taylor and Karlie’s friendship had become so high-profile that they were chosen to grace the cover of Vogue together. They looked like twins as they posed for the shoot and discussed the inner workings of their friendship. Throughout the year, Taylor and Karlie attended more public events together and supported each other’s endeavors on social media. Karlie also appeared in Taylor’s star-studded music video for “Bad Blood” in May 2015, and was by Taylor’s side when the video won big at the Video Music Awards in August.
The friendship continued in 2016, when Taylor and Karlie attended Coachella together, and Karlie showed up to Taylor’s annual Fourth of July party in Rhode Island. That fall, Karlie was by Taylor’s side at the beginning of the singer’s relationship with Joe Alwyn. They were spotted out at the Bowery Hotel together in October, and then attended Drake’s birthday party in California later that month. After that, Taylor virtually disappeared from the spotlight for almost a full year.
When Did The Friendship Get Rocky?
The first buzz of possible trouble between Taylor and Karlie began amidst Taylor’s public troubles with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West in 2016. Karlie is friendly with the KarJenner family, and referred to Kim as a “lovely person” during a 2016 interview. Fans slammed her for praising Taylor’s nemesis, and she made sure to clap back. “I will not allow the media to misconstrue my words,” Karlie insisted. “Taylor has always had my back and I will always have hers.” The model also attended Kanye’s Yeezy Season 3 Fashion Show, where he played “Famous” — the song that featured a lyric about Taylor and reignited her feud with the rapper.
Then, Taylor released her music video for “Look What You Made Me Do” in Aug. 2017. In one scene of the video, she wore a t-shirt with some of her closest friends’ names on it. Fans noticed names like Gigi Hadid, Selena Gomez, Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds and more. The name that was noticeably missing, though….was Karlie’s.
In Jan. 2018, Karlie uploaded a photo of herself on Instagram and captioned it, “Swish Swish,” which was the same title of a Katy Perry song that was speculated to be a Taylor diss track (Karlie later changed the caption). The next month, Karlie was even spotted at dinner with Katy, who was still Taylor’s nemesis at this time! By that point, even Jennifer Lawrence was wondering what was up between the former BFFs.
Did Either Star Admit To The Fallout?
Since then, Karlie has tried to dispel rumors of a fallout with Taylor. In March 2018, she told the New York Times that she and Taylor still spoke frequently, and urged people, “Don’t believe everything you read.” Karlie also supported Taylor at the Nashville show of her Reputation stadium tour in Aug. 2018, and posted a selfie with the songstress backstage. “No one puts on a show like Taylor Swift,” she captioned the pic. “#ReputationTourNashville was out of this world. I am SO proud of you.”
That October, she directly addressed Jennifer Lawrence’s concerns about her friendship with Taylor during a 73 Questions interview with Vogue. “Jen, don’t worry — Taylor and I are still really good friends,” she laughed. Unfortunately, Taylor was in Australia when Karlie married Joshua Kushner in Oct. 2018, but she showed her friend support by ‘liking’ the wedding photo on Karlie’s Instagram. Karlie also wished Taylor a happy 29th birthday on Instagram that December.
In March 2019, Taylor opened up about how her idea of friendship had changed over the years in an essay for Elle. Some fans thought she was taking a dig at Karlie when she discussed the difference between “friendships” and “situationships.” However, Karlie was totally cool with the essay. “Taylor is incredible and I feel really lucky to call her a friend,” Karlie said on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. “She’s one of the hardest working women and I loved her essay.”
What Is Their Relationship Like Today?
Still, there seems to still be distance between Taylor and Karlie today. Karlie and Joshua had a second wedding in June 2019, and, once again, Taylor was not in attendance. At the end of that month, Taylor publicly called out her former label head, Scott Borchetta, for selling the masters of her first six albums to her nemesis, Scooter Braun — who also happens to be Karlie’s manager. Scooter also works for Kanye and Justin Bieber, who Taylor had publicly feuded with in the past, and she accused Scooter of egging on the drama and “bullying” her. Fans began to speculate that Karlie’s connection with Scooter was beginning to cause an even further rift in her relationship with Taylor.
In July 2020, Taylor released her album Folklore, which featured an album cover of the 31-year-old in the woods. Interestingly, Karlie uploaded a picture of herself in the midst of nature on the very same day of the album release. She didn’t reference Folklore specifically, but of course, fans wondered if the post was meant as some sort of jab toward Taylor. However, Karlie subtly showed support for the album by ‘liking’ Instagram posts from designer Christian Siriano and Martha Hunt about the record.
Taylor and Karlie’s feud was highlighted once again in Jan. 2021, though, when Taylor released a new song, “It’s Time To Go,” off the deluxe version of her album Evermore. The song references various examples of when a person knows that it’s time to end a certain relationship or make a change. The first verse includes the lyrics, “When the words of a sister, comes back in whispers, that prove she was not in fact what she seemed, not a twin from your dreams, she’s a crook who was caught.” Fans were convinced that these lyrics were about Karlie staying loyal to Scooter, despite Taylor’s issues with him.
What Does This Mean For The Relationship Moving Forward?
Unfortunately, if Karlie continues to work with Scooter, it doesn’t seem like there’s much hope that this friendship will ever get back to what it was. Taylor has made it clear that Scooter is someone who she does not want to be associated with. In Nov. 2020, it was announced that Scooter had sold Taylor’s masters to a private equity company. Before the deal went through, Taylor and her team actually entered negotiations with Scooter so that she could buy the masters from him. But, Taylor felt manipulated by the stipulations that Scooter wanted to put on the deal.
“Scooter’s team wanted me to sign an ironclad NDA stating that I would never say another word about Scooter unless it was positive, before we could even look at the financial records of BMLG, which is always the first step in a purchase of this nature,” Taylor explained. “So, I would have to sign a document that would silence me forever before I could even have a chance to bid on my own work. My legal team said this is absolutely NOT normal and they’ve never seen an NDA like this presented unless it was to silence an assault accuser by paying them off. He would never even quote my team a price. These master recordings were not for sale to me.”
Karlie has not publicly gotten in the middle of the Taylor and Scooter drama. However, at the end of the day, that may be part of the problem. Taylor’s fans have been vocally upset with Karlie for not speaking out in defense of Taylor. While neither star has flat-out said that they’ve drifted apart, all evidence points to the end of a once-solid friendship.
