Topics: Music, Celebrity, Taylor Swift, Kanye West
Taylor Lautner has said he regrets laughing when his then-girlfriend Taylor Swift had her VMAs acceptance speech interrupted by Kanye West in 2009.
A 19-year-old Swift scooped the best music video by a female artist award for 'You Belong with Me', but her win was quickly overshadowed when an irate West rushed the stage and declared: "I'mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time." You can see how it all played out here:
Footage from the incident shows a clearly confused-looking Swift clutching her award as West reiterates: “Of all time.”
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Now, Lautner - who was in a relationship with Swift at the time - has recalled his experience of the evening, saying he didn’t initially realise it wasn’t a skit.
Appearing on The Squeeze podcast, Lautner - who has since married Taylor Lautner née Dome - was asked which moment from his life he would go back and re-do if possible.
"Probably the 2009 VMAs," the Twilight star said.
"I presented the award to her so I gave her the award, I took five steps back and was standing five feet behind her. And in the middle of 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 this whole thing was a practised and rehearsed skit, because why else would Kanye West be jumping on the stage interrupting Taylor Swift?
"It just didn't make sense."
Lautner went on to say that he had only been ‘laughing and giggling’ because he couldn’t fully hear what was being said and he didn’t realise that it wasn’t a pre-planned joke until he saw Swift’s face.
"He jumped off. She finished,” he recalled. “The second she turned back around and I saw her face for the first time, I was like, 'Oh. This … that wasn't good. I probably should have said something.’”
The incident sparked a lengthy feud between Swift and West which was ignited afresh following the release of his controversial song 'Famous' in 2016.
In the song the rapper says, ‘I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that b*tch famous (God damn). I made that b*tch famous.’
West claimed he asked Swift’s permission to use the lyrics, but a leaked phone call between the two showed that while the rapper asked to mention her in the song, he didn’t say he was going to refer to her as a ‘b*tch’ or that he made her famous.
