Taylor Lautner with Kanye West and Taylor Swift insetted. Shutterstock (2)
Taylor Lautner is going back to the 2009 Video Music Awards. The Twilight star recalled the night that then-girlfriend Taylor Swift’s awards show win was overshadowed by Kanye West.
Not only did Lautner, 30, revisit the incident — he also expressed his regret over his initial reaction. During the Wednesday, February 1, episode of his “The Squeeze” podcast, wife Taylor Dome asked him which career moment he’d choose to relive again.
“Probably the 2009 VMAs when I presented the award to Taylor,” the Valentine’s Day actor replied. “[I] was unaware that the Kanye thing was not a skit.”
During the September 2009 awards show, Lautner was tasked with presenting the Best Female Video award. He announced that Swift, now 33, had won the coveted honor for her “You Belong With Me” music video. As the Valentine’s Day actress — whom Lautner dated between August and December 2009 — started to begin her speech, she was interrupted when West, now 45, rushed onto the stage.
“Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’mma let you finish. But Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time [with ‘Single Ladies’]! One of the best videos of all time,” the Yeezy designer proclaimed, grabbing the microphone.
West shrugged his shoulders before handing the microphone back to the country star. Swift and Beyoncé, now 41, were both stunned. The “Drunk in Love” songstress was even seen mouthing “Oh, my God,” during the outburst. (Beyoncé later invited Swift to “have her moment” and complete her speech after “Single Ladies” won Video of the Year.)
“Yeah [we had just gone public with our relationship] and I presented the award to her, so I gave her the award [and] I took five steps back and was standing five feet behind her,” Lautner recalled to his wife, whom he married in November 2022, on Wednesday’s podcast episode. “In the middle of giving her thank-you speech, Kanye jumps up onto the stage.”
He continued: “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, interrupting Taylor Swift? It just didn’t make sense.”
Dome, who joked that she was “deceased” that her spouse addressed the infamous awards show feud during their joint podcast, agreed with Lautner’s spur-of-the-moment reaction.
“He jumped off, she finished [and] the second she turned back around and I saw her face for the first time, I was like, ‘Oh. No, that wasn’t good,’” the Abduction star added.
The “Stronger” rapper later apologized for his actions directly to Swift.
“Kanye did call me and he was very sincere in his apology, and I accepted that apology,” the “Anti-Hero” songstress told ABC Radio later that year. “The support I got from other artists and from the fans, and so many people sticking up for me, that’s what got me to the place where I could accept that apology. And I’m just very thankful that everyone showed me so much love.”
When Swift released her Speak Now record one year later, it was rumored that “Innocent” was penned about the incident and subsequent apology, though the Pennsylvania native never publicly confirmed it.
The “Carolina” singer and West later reignited their feud in 2016. That February, the Chicago native rapped in his track “Famous” that he “made that bitch famous” and featured a Swift lookalike in the music video.
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