Millions of fans bought Taylor Swift‘s new album. But a very lucky few received The Life of a Showgirl in a different way — straight from Tay herself!
The Gift
She sent out a few copies in an orange, glittery care package that included a couple T-shirts, as well as a sweet handwritten note letting the recipient know they’re “someone special”:
“Well hi! If you’re reading this, you’re someone special who had shown love, someone I admire, and ultimately someone I’d want to celebrate with as we welcome The Life of a Showgirl into the world. I hope you like these gifts and record! With love, a showgirl named Taylor.”
Her WAG bestie Brittany Mahomes got one, for example — which couldn’t have been as nice a gift as the song CANCELLED! but still pretty great.
Related: Taylor Uses GoFundMe ‘Like A Social Media App’ To Donate Constantly, Says Ruby Rose!
Now we know one more gal who got one — Teyana Taylor! The One Battle After Another actress posted her gift on her IG Stories on Tuesday! Take a look (below):
Just pure generosity, right? Well… if you look this gift horse in the mouth, you might just find some bite to it!
What the heck is the deal??
OK, so it turns out what Teyana and Swift have in common — besides the name Taylor — is they both have beef with a certain media personality who used to date Travis Kelce!
Yeah, her. Kayla Nicole.
What Kayla Did
The influencer was asked on Angel Reese‘s Unapologetic podcast about a year ago about the “craziest thing” she ever did in a relationship. She talked about a guy she was dating who dumped her via text message — ouch! She said he left her “for this singer/actress who was famous at the time”:
“[He] lied about it for months then popped out with her. It became this public thing, like, ‘Oh, my God, we love them.’”
Why did people love them? Because the guy was basketball star Iman Shumpert — and the singer/actress, as you might have guessed, was Teyana. They eventually got married and had two kids. They’ve since divorced, but you can see why people loved them as a couple — they were married for like 7 years.
Kayla recalled she had “just moved to New York to, like, be with this person and move in with them.” She said she was “devastated” and “heartbroken” by this new “iconic celebrity couple” going public.
So what did she do? She went as her ex’s famous new girlfriend for Halloween! She laughed:
“I dressed up as her. I dressed up as that lady for Halloween.”
It’s… not much of a revenge move, near as we can figure. Maybe taking some power back? Anyway, everyone knew instantly who Kayla was talking about because she went that year as Teyana from the Fade music video, which co-stars Iman.
Teyana’s Beef
Kayla’s story went viral, largely because it involved the other celebs involved — you know, an athlete ex and the singer he ended up with after. Just not that one.
Teyana was upset with how she told the story, writing in a since-deleted comment on The Shade Room‘s post about the story:
“F**k the iman part, l’m divorced and happily so, however her choice of words were very distasteful and uncalled for… She knew exactly what she was doing. That lady said ‘she was famous at the time.’”
She’s not wrong, that’s clearly some shade, implying she was a flash in the pan — and over now. She added:
“Most importantly she knew people would dig. So automatically my name is attached to the nonsense. At that point, she didn’t need to ‘@’ me, that was clearly a quick search. My name was trending without an @ before even saying a word. That’s how I seen it! lol On top of the fact that the math wasn’t mathing & the facts weren’t fact’ing. However, the level of cringe factor was. Lol.”
She went on to bring up the Taylor connection, writing:
“I’m finding out just like the world that her intentions were ill and petty. She pulled the black card when it came to Taylor Swift, but in the same circle, turned around and tried to bully the black woman that was married to her situationship she claimed ‘dumped her’ for me.”
Regarding the bullying, she was as confused as we were. She wrote:
“Dressing up like me for what?? Crazy part about it all is, I actually showed love under her pic when she posted it! Like I did the other 3736262626 people that dressed up as me for Halloween. Whole time I ain’t even know she was being shady. Now I do. So in that case petty panties on had my lil fun I said what I said & now im done and headed back to set!”
Ha! And she was headed to set! She had a lot to work on, including the soon-to-be-celebrated Leonardo DiCaprio film she was just in.
In fact, she advertised that fact in another post she put up later, showing all her upcoming projects — and she set it to the other Taylor’s Shake It Off! She also wrote, “I know 2025 gone hate to see a Taylor coming!!” And she was right! They’re BOTH having fantastic Octobers! Ha!
OK, so knowing all that…
Swifties React
Tay reaching out with this gift is very much a message, right?? That’s what a lot of drama-hound Swifties think! Here’s a few of the comments folks have posted online since Teyana posted:
“Some of yall are missing the real tea of this and why it’s so funny hahahaha”
“Ohh some people don’t get it yet but Taylor getting messy this era and I love it”
“Iykyk I love petty Taylor”
“She only sent it because Teyana talked mess about Kayla
when folks that don’t like you link up
“Oh, so KN has a history of clinging.”
“CTFU
taylor definitely knows ball”
“The queen of petty she’s in her idgafa era”
“Of course she knows that story. They’re normal people who love to spill the tea. Of course she saw that interview (the one where KN also calls her a ‘situationship’ and says she’s the reason she can’t talk to Travis in public anymore). We all love petty Taylor.”
Do YOU agree this was shade toward Kayla? It wouldn’t be the first time, right? Or is this just two Queen Taylors teaming up in their time of great success??
[Image via MEGA/WENN/Kayla Nicole/Instagram.]