Taylor Swift Says Kim Kardashian & Kanye West’s ‘Frame Job’ Phone Call ‘Took Me Down Psychologically’

You forgive, you forget, but you never let it go. Taylor Swift recounted some of the most defining moments of her life and career in a new interview with TIME — which named her 2023’s person of the year — and she didn’t mince her words when it came to her years-old feud with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.

“Make no mistake — my career was taken away from me,” she told the publication. “That took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before.”

The drama went down seven years ago, so here’s a refresher: In 2016, Ye released a song called “Famous” on which he rapped, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/ Why? I made that b—h famous.” Swift’s rep then released a statement saying the “Anti-Hero” singer was “never made aware” of the “made that b—h famous” lyric, after which Kardashian, who was married to West at the time, insisted that Swift and her husband had agreed on the song’s content in a phone call before its release.

The reality star went on to share video clips of said phone call, or as Swift described it to TIME, “You have a fully manufactured frame job, in an illegally recorded phone call, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out to say to everyone that I was a liar.” (Billboard has reached out to Kardashian’s rep for comment.)

Public opinion generally turned against the 12-time Grammy winner, who essentially went into hiding. She’d later reemerge in 2017 with her fittingly titled album Reputation.

“I moved to a foreign country. I didn’t leave a rental house for a year. I was afraid to get on phone calls,” the pop star recalled. “I pushed away most people in my life because I didn’t trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard.”

Flash forward to 2023, and Swift is at the height of her popularity. Unedited footage of her infamous phone call with West emerged in 2020, vindicating her in the eyes of many. Kardashian and West split in 2021.

In her interview, the musician also spoke candidly about her other famous public feud: 2020’s fallout with the owner of her former label Big Machine Records, Scott Borchetta, over his sale of her catalog to Scooter Braun. “I’ve also learned there’s no point in actively trying to quote unquote defeat your enemies,” she told the publication. “Trash takes itself out every single time.”

Swift was declared person of the year Wednesday (Dec. 6), making her the first entertainer to ever receive the magazine’s title, as well as the fourth solo honoree to be born in the last century. Her other year-end credits include Billboard‘s Top Artist of 2023, top global artist for both Spotify and Apple Music, Forbes‘ fifth-most powerful woman in the world and People‘s most intriguing person of the year.