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Fans of blonde pop stars may rejoice–there’s no “Bad Blood” between Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter. The “Please Please Please” singer, 25, received online pushback from fans when she unveiled her ad campaign with SKIMS shapewear in an Instagram post on April 1. Because the brand belongs to TV personality Kim Kardashian, who has long had a rivalry with Swift, some commenters viewed this collaboration as a betrayal.
“Skims???? What about Taylor” asked one fan, while another replied that the image “makes me question your friendship with Taylor.”
Another referenced Swift’s song “Cardigan” by quoting the lyric “A friend to all is a friend to none,” implying that Carpenter couldn’t be a true friend to Swift while working with Kardashian.
Taylor Swift performs with Sabrina Carpenter at Accor Stadium on February 23, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. Carpenter considers Swift one of her best friends and a mentor.
Don Arnold/Getty Images
Some Instagram users were quick to come to Carpenter’s defense.
One follower wrote, “You guys need to give her a goddamn break. ‘Taylor this, Taylor that.’ I’m sorry but the world doesn’t revolve around Taylor. Sabrina can make her own decisions. This is just work. (Coming from a swiftie since birth.)”
From the beginning, Carpenter maintains that Swift knew about the campaign and was fine with it. But in a recent interview with Variety, the “Espresso” chanteuse pushed back further and dismissed the idea that Swift would be upset about her working with Kardashian’s brand. “The posts about me having to ‘ask for her permission’ — no,” she said.
Carpenter opened for Swift on several of her Eras Tour stops in Latin America, Australia and Singapore, and considers the artist a mentor and “one of my best, best friends” who she can go to for advice. “It’s so cool for me to get a perspective on this whole process from her and the community of artists that I feel I’m close to — to get advice from them on stuff that you can’t just ask the internet,” she said of Swift.