Scooter Braun’s feud with Taylor Swift hasn’t cost him his sense of humor, apparently. Amid the drama, the music manager posted a photo of himself looking significantly older, seemingly aged through Photoshop. “Last couple of weeks have really taken a toll on me 😁,” he quipped in the caption of the Tuesday, July 16, post.
Perhaps not coincidentally, it’s been a “couple of weeks” since Taylor Swift called the 38-year-old out on Tumblr after he purchased her former label, Big Machine Records, from founder Scott Borchetta. The deal, reported to be worth more than $300 million, gave Braun ownership of the master recordings from much of the pop star’s career so far.
“I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world,” Swift, 29, wrote on Tumblr on June 30. “All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years.”
In the post, the “You Need to Calm Down” singer claimed that Braun got Kanye West and Justin Bieber to bully her online after she objected to the lyrics of West’s track “Famous.”
“This is my worst case scenario,” she wrote. “When I left my masters in Scott’s hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter. Any time Scott Borchetta has heard the words ‘Scooter Braun’ escape my lips, it was when I was either crying or trying not to. He knew what he was doing; they both did. Controlling a woman who didn’t want to be associated with them. In perpetuity. That means forever.”
Braun didn’t directly respond to the Tumblr post, but he did repost social media messages supporting him. Meanwhile, Yael Cohen, Braun’s wife, lashed out at Swift on Instagram, writing, “Girl, who are you to talk about bullying? The world has watched you collect and drop friends like wilted flowers. … You are supposed to be a role model.”
A source told Us Weekly earlier this month that Braun “is open to having a private conversation” with the 10-time Grammy winner.
“He has no intention of releasing a formal statement and blowing up the situation even more than it already has been,” the source added. “This is between Scooter and Taylor, not the world.”
