Untold story of Taylor Swift’s spectacular fallout with Karlie Kloss: Insiders confirm everyone’s suspicions as details of rupture finally spill out… before accidental New York reunion

Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss, once the most inseparable duo in Swift’s famous girl squad, were giggling like it was 2014 again at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday as they cheered on Swift’s husband, Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce.

With Swift’s mom Andrea perched beside them, there was plenty of love in the luxe suite – and not a trace of bad blood.

Quite the comeback for a friendship that, by every account, went down in flames.

In fact, one insider has told the Daily Mail that supermodel Kloss was once ‘even closer’ to Swift than Blake Lively, the ex-bestie frozen out after the singer was dragged into the actress’s legal war with actor and director Justin Baldoni.

‘There wasn’t anything they didn’t confide to each other about,’ the insider said of Swift and Kloss. ‘Then suddenly their friendship came crashing down.’

So what went wrong?

Scooter Braun, sources say. The news appears to confirm long-held suspicions that the model’s closeness with the music mogul – also Swift’s nemesis – was the catalyst for the rupture.

‘The rift between Taylor and Karlie was never quite as simple as two friends having a falling-out,’ one insider told us. ‘A lot of the tension surrounding their relationship woes came down to Scooter Braun.’

Kloss, 34, had been managed by Braun for years when, in June 2019, he bought Swift’s former label Big Machine in a $300 million deal, and with it the masters to her first six albums.

For Swift, 36, it was the ultimate act of war, and Kloss was caught squarely in the crossfire.

‘Karlie found herself in an uncomfortable position trying to maintain her friendship with Taylor while being managed by Scooter, who we all know Taylor has had long-standing issues with,’ the source said.

‘Taylor was understandably hurt with Karlie’s association with Scooter, and that only added another layer to an already complicated situation. It became something that unfortunately overshadowed what had been a very genuine friendship.’

In fact, the insider claimed that some of Swift’s friends even thought she was being too hard on her pal Kloss: ‘A couple of Tay’s girl squad told her to let it go.’ 

But just like that, the cookie-baking besties were done.

Yet seven years later, here they are together once again, and Kloss, it seems, has earned her way back into the singer’s inner circle.

Kloss and her businessman husband Joshua Kushner joined the A-list crowd at Swift and Kelce’s wedding at Madison Square Garden in July, alongside the likes of actress Lena Dunham, model Gigi Hadid and the Haim sisters.

When Swift walked down the aisle, Kloss was right there, tissues at the ready. 

‘Karlie was crying for Tay at her wedding. That’s how happy she was for her,’ the insider said.

The reunion has left Swifties reeling, not least because, as one insider points out, the singer rarely hands out a second shot.

‘When Tay cuts people out of her life it’s almost always for good. She’s not usually a second chances sort of person.’

And for a long time, it seemed like Kloss would be no exception. So how did the ice finally break? 

According to our second source, Braun had to be out of the picture. 

‘Once she wasn’t managed by him there was a place for a friendship to start again,’ they said. ‘Time has been able to heal all wounds. Scooter is no longer the common denominator in their lives, and there really isn’t any reason to keep carrying around the baggage from that period.’

Businessman Braun, 45, has since quit artist management altogether, declaring in June 2024 that he was ‘a manager no more.’

‘Whatever awkwardness or hurt feelings existed back then are water under the bridge,’ the source added. ‘They have both moved on; their lives have evolved. Though the friendship needed a little distance, they now realize what they mean to one another.’

According to our first insider, the ice had started to thaw before then – with an awkward hello in the Big Apple.

‘They ran into each other in New York. That was about four years ago. It was probably awkward in the moment, but they have so much history, they just hugged.’

Indeed, their history dates back more than a decade, when Swift declared in a 2012 Vogue interview: ‘I love Karlie Kloss. I want to bake cookies with her!’ 

It wouldn’t be until the following year that they were seen together publicly at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, and from there the friendship blossomed.

In 2014, Kloss documented their road trip through a series of filtered Instagram posts, and they were spotted on various outings in New York City. The two even shared a Vogue cover in 2015.

That year, Kloss also suited up for Swift’s star-studded Bad Blood music video alongside a who’s who of the singer’s famous friends, and went on stage with the rest of Swift’s girl squad on her 1989 tour.

Then, Kanye West released his song Famous in February 2016, with its now-infamous line: ‘I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / I made that b***h famous.’

Swift insisted she never signed off on it. But Kim Kardashian, who was married to the rapper at the time, released footage of West’s call with Swift in July that year to prove she had, unleashing a barrage of snake emojis that left the singer feeling ‘lower than ever.’

So when Kloss was asked about Kardashian by The Times mere weeks later, she had a tightrope to walk.

‘Ha… you know… I honestly… I… I…’ she stammered, before saying: ‘I think she’s been a lovely person to me in the past.’

Diplomatic? Perhaps. But it was this statement that many took to be the catalyst for their broken friendship.

Kloss addressed the rumors, writing on Twitter at the time: ‘I will not allow the media to misconstrue my words. Taylor has always had my back and I will always have hers. I will never be the girl that you can use to pit women against each other.’

Although our first insider said the comment ‘bugged’ Swift, our second source insisted Kardashian was not the cause of the friendship fallout.

Indeed, for Swift’s birthday that year, Kloss hailed the singer as her ‘friend, sister and partner in crime.’ 

It wasn’t until 2017 that rumors started to take shape that the friends were through once and for all. Sources previously claimed Swift had doubts about Kloss’s intentions and her cozy ties to Swift’s nemesis Braun.

The masters battle that followed saw Swift re-record her old albums before finally reclaiming the originals in 2025.

Kloss, meanwhile, didn’t exactly keep her distance from the music mogul.

Braun was a guest at her second wedding celebration with Kushner in June 2019, which Swift skipped. Then, weeks after Swift publicly denounced Braun, he shared vacation snaps with the couple, captioned ‘week of laughter.’

Other reports have suggested politics may have played a part too, given that Kushner’s brother Jared is married to Ivanka Trump. President Donald Trump once declared he ‘hates’ the Democrat-leaning singer.

Despite Kloss’ occasional words of support for Swift over the years, fans became convinced the friends were done for. Some Swifties even insisted that the singer’s 2020 track It’s Time to Go – with its line about ‘the words of a sister’ coming ‘back in whispers’ – was a dig at Kloss.

And when Kloss turned up at the Eras Tour in Los Angeles in August 2023, she was famously not invited into the VIP tent.

But it seems that hug in New York has quietly worked some magic.

On Sunday, Kloss brought her five-year-old son Levi to the suite, where she sat alongside Swift and her parents, Andrea and Scott.

‘They’re now back to where they were in the old days,’ our insider said. ‘As close as ever.’

The other source agreed: ‘Scooter is the enemy here, him and Taylor will never see eye to eye. They can laugh about it now, but Karlie and Taylor are ride or die.’

Fitting words, given that Kloss used that exact phrase to gush over Swift in birthday tributes all those years ago.

The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for Swift, Kloss and Braun for comment.