10 Celebrity Feuds that Defined 2016
As one year comes to a close and another begins, it is tradition to look back at some of our fondest memories of the previous 365 days. We like to rewind the clock and look at what’s made us laugh, what’s made us cry, and all of the dramaaaaa that has gone down in 2016. And if there was one thing we had a lot of in 2016, it was celebrities letting us know what they really think — often about each other.
While we would never wish or encourage negativity or harm to any of our favorite celebs, we have to be honest about the fact that it's hard to look away when two of our faves get into it over social media. Thanks to Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram, celebrity feuds don’t just happen in the past tense anymore — we witness them publicly, in real time. As 2016 comes to an end, let’s take a look back at some of the most dramatic moments of the past year.
2015 Getty Images1/11Taylor Swift vs. Kim Kardashian and Kanye West
Sunday, July 17, will go down in history as one of the biggest “tea time” moments of 2016. It was, of course, the day that Kim Kardashian released that video on Snapchat, the one that seemingly proved that Taylor did know about those lyrics from Kanye’s song “Famous.” Of course, Taylor responded a day later, explaining that while she may have known about the song in general, she didn’t know that Kanye was going to call her a b*tch in the lyrics. The ending of Taylor’s note will live on forever in memes and Instagram captions, as it reads, “I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative, one that I never asked to be a part of, since 2009.” We all have that memorized by now, right?
2/11Chloë Grace Moretz (and Ruby Rose) vs. Khloé Kardashian
The Taylor/Kimye drama was the feud that launched a thousand other feuds, as there was certainly a ripple effect for days. Many other celebs jumped into the fray, including Chloë Grace Moretz, and consequently, Khloé Kardashian. Chloë took to Twitter to urge everyone involved in the drama to move on to other issues. “Everyone in this industry needs to get their heads out of a hole and look around to realize what’s ACTUALLY happening in the REAL world,” Chloë tweeted on July 18. “Stop wasting your voice on something so petulant and unimportant.”
Khloé Kardashian rushed to side with Kim and decided to try to slut-shame Chloë in response. She tweeted two photos: One of them was a shot of Chloë while filming Neighbors 2, and the other was actually a photo of a random teenage girl – not Chloë at all. Ruby Rose jumped into the mix to defend Chloë and call Khloé out on the insulting tweets.
BuzzFoto via Getty Images3/11Taylor Swift vs. Calvin Harris
Taylor Swift was in the eye of the storm of two out of three of the biggest summertime celeb blowouts. Drama went down shortly after Taylor and Calvin Harris broke up — around the time that Taylor started dating Tom Hiddleston. After Taylor confirmed that she, in fact, was Nils Sjöberg – AKA, she collaborated on Calvin’s hit “This is What You Came For” — Calvin unleashed a series of tweets directed at Taylor (or Nils). The tweets have since been deleted, save for one that reads, “Please focus on the positive aspects of YOUR life because you've earned a great one.”
WireImage4/11Katy Perry vs. Taylor Swift, Part .... TBH, we've lost count
The Taylor Swift and Katy Perry feud has been going on for YEARS, but it certainly intensified in the latter half of 2016. Just a couple of months ago, Katy attended a Kanye West concert and Snapchatted a very curious and particular portion of one specific song. Yep. During Kanye’s performance of “Famous” (see No. 1 on this list), Katy posted a Snap video to her story that contained the lyrics that Taylor took issue with. And earlier this year, Katy tweeted a verrrrry interesting GIF right in the middle of the Taylor/Calvin drama (see No. 3). We can’t keep up.
2012 Noel Vasquez5/11Selena Gomez vs. Justin Bieber
Okay, we’re leaving the Taylor train and boarding the Justin car for a minute – and we’ll be here for a while. The last huge drama of the summer involved the Biebs. After people were leaving mean comments on Justin’s Instagram aimed at Sofia Richie, Justin threatened to delete his Insta page – which he later did, of course. In the midst of this, Selena jumped into the conversation by writing, “If you can't handle the hate, then stop posting pictures of your girlfriend lol- It should be special between you two only. Don't be mad at your fans. They love you.” This quickly turned into a back-and-forth between Selena and Justin, in which Justin accused her of using him for attention, and she accused him of cheating. It was all very dramatic, resulting in Justin leaving Instagram for four months and counting.
2015 Star Max6/11Hailey Baldwin vs. Justin Bieber
Selena Gomez wasn’t the only one to get involved in the Justin Bieber Instagram saga. Before deleting his account altogether, Justin unfollowed Hailey Baldwin, after she posted a quote on her ‘gram about honesty. Hailey’s Instagram post read, “Misplacing the blame onto someone else isn’t going to get you to the next stage in life, so try not to manipulate a situation to make yourself look better.”
However, later on, Hailey said that her ‘gram wasn’t about the Justin/Selena drama at all. In a tweet, Hailey clarified, “The only thing I "weigh in on" is everyday life in general. Don't rope me into things I'm not a part of and please respect my privacy.” It’s clear that we all learned some lessons this summer — social media allows us to quickly jump to assumptions, but we should always take some time to consider that there’s a lot we don’t know.
7/11Aaron Carter vs. Justin Bieber
Early in 2016, Aaron Carter tried to rope Justin into yet another drama. In an interview with Billboard, Justin's attorney Aaron Rosenberg seemingly dissed Aaron when he was asked, “How did Bieber not turn into Aaron Carter? What went right?” He answered the question without directly insulting Aaron Carter, but by answering, Aaron interpreted that Justin’s attorney was acknowledging that his career had gone wrong.
Aaron took to Twitter to tell Justin to “watch what his people” say. And then he later went on to throw a dis of his own, saying, “The difference between Justin Bieber and I, now, is I produce my music. I make it.” It’s been almost a full year since this went down, and Justin hasn’t responded yet.
8/11Perrie Edwards vs. Zayn Malik
There’s been a lot of speculation that Little Mix’s hit single, “Shout Out to My Ex,” was written about Perrie Edwards’s ex-fiancé, Zayn Malik. Those speculations intensified when Perrie said that Zayn ended their engagement via a text message.
In Little Mix’s book, Our World, Perrie wrote, “A four-year relationship, two year engagement ended by a simple text message. Just like that. Even though things in my career were going really well, it was incredibly difficult for me.” Incidentally, Zayn denies this breakup story, as he told The Fader that he “would never” end their relationship like that.
The plot thickened when Little Mix’s original lyrics to “Shout Out to My Ex” were revealed, making it seem like there was a very direct reference to Zayn’s current girlfriend, Gigi Hadid.
9/11The Chainsmokers vs. Lady Gaga and Rihanna
In October, The Chainsmokers — who were ALL over everyone’s playlists this year — said some not-very-nice things about Lady Gaga and Rihanna in an interview with Rolling Stone. Alex Pall straight up said that Lady Gaga’s new music “sucks,” and he later threw some shade at Rihanna when discussing “Don’t Let Me Down” — the track that Rihanna was originally asked to be a part of.
Of course, Lady Gaga being the queen that she is, responded to The Chainsmokers in the classiest way possible. She tweeted out the link to her single “A-YO,” writing, “@thechainsmokers, maybe u guys’ll like this 1 better” — with the peace sign emoji of course. Rihanna has yet to comment, because she's living her best life unbothered by what anyone else has to say.
2016 Steve Granitz10/11Chrissy Teigen vs. ALL the trolls
While there’s plenty of validity in the advice of turning the other cheek, sometimes it’s also important to clap back at those who cross over the line. Chrissy Teigen isn’t afraid to drag trolls on Twitter, especially when people insult fellow celebs. After Kim Kardashian was robbed earlier this fall, Chrissy took to Twitter to respond to those who were making jokes at Kim’s expense. “Fame is interesting,” Chrissy wrote. “Celebs are supposed to love you guys while also knowing you'd make a meme of our dead bodies to get retweets.” She later added, “Please do not think that I think celebrities are special snowflakes. I just miss empathy, in general, for everyone.” Chrissy had an important point there: We all could do a better job of showing empathy toward everyone, even — and sometimes especially —celebrities.
