The INSIDER Summary:
- Taylor Swift and Katy Perry have a long-running feud.
- Perry has offered to move on and said she's ready to forgive Swift for wronging her.
- If Swift rejects the offer, she risks looking petty compared to Perry.
Katy Perry just made the first move to end one of the most tedious ongoing celebrity feuds.
Once upon a time, they were close friends. But for years now, Taylor Swift and Perry have been fighting.
It all started, according to Perry's account, when Swift borrowed and then mistreated a few of Perry's backup dancers for one of her tours. Then Swift doubled down with her song "Bad Blood," which many interpreted as being about Perry.
In the past couple of months, Perry has ratcheted up her own attacks. Her song "Swish Swish" is a sort of diss track about Swift.
The feud reached its apotheosis on Friday. Perry released her new album, "Witness." On the same day, Swift released all of her music on Spotify, which some saw as a move to draw attention away from Perry's new music.
Perry now seems to want to be done with it. Whether she's forgiving Swift or merely exhausted is hard to tell, but she has offered an olive branch nonetheless. In an interview with Ariana Huffington for Thrive Global, Perry said she was ready to let her grudge go.
"I am ready to let it go," Perry said. "I forgive her and I'm sorry for anything I ever did, and I hope the same from her. I think it's actually like, I think it's time. There are bigger fish to fry, and there are real problems in the world."
Of course, this could just be another way of fighting against Swift. While Perry has talked openly about the feud, Swift is more circumspect. By openly offering to make peace, Perry has made it so Swift may have to respond publicly to accept the offer. So far, Swift has hardly acknowledged the feud in any interviews.
Furthermore, Swift would have to acknowledge that she's done anything wrong in the first place, which so far she's declined to do.
If Swift rejects or ignores the offer, she risks looking petty compared to Perry, who made herself look like someone willing to mend their differences.
"Like maybe I don't agree with everything she does and she doesn't agree with everything I do," Perry said. "But I just really truly want to come together in a place of love and forgiveness and understanding and compassion."
At the same time, like Perry said, there are other things in the world to be worried about instead of a celebrity feud.
"There's a lot of other things out there in the world that people need to be focused on," Perry told Thrive Global. "And I truly, like, God bless her on her journey. God bless her. Honestly."
