Taylor Swift Opens Up About Her Mom’s Brain Tumor Diagnosis, the Kanye Feud and More With ‘Variety’: 5 Revelations

Credit: Jim Smeal/BEI/Shutterstock

Taylor Swift Opens Up About Her Mom's Brain Tumor Diagnosis, the Kanye Feud and More With ‘Variety’: 5 Revelations

Standing strong. Taylor Swift opened up about her mother's unexpected brain tumor diagnosis amid her ongoing battle with breast cancer. The "You Need to Calm Down" singer, 30, told Variety on Tuesday, January 21, that her family was facing a "really hard time" after doctors discovered the tumor in the midst of her mom’s chemotherapy treatment. [caption id="attachment_1703043" align="alignnone" width="447"] Taylor Swift for Variety Magazine.[/caption] "Everyone loves their mom, everyone’s got an important mom. But for me, she’s really the guiding force. Almost every decision I make, I talk to her about it first. So obviously it was a really big deal to ever speak about her illness," the Grammy winner explained. "The symptoms of what a person goes through when they have a brain tumor is nothing like what we’ve ever been through with her cancer before. So it’s just been a really hard time for us as a family." The "Delicate" songstress first revealed that her mother, Andrea Swift, would be seeking treatment for breast cancer in an emotional note posted to Tumblr in April 2015. [sendtonews type="float" key="8CSpZ0ZpYp-3114752-14453"] "I’m writing to you with an update I wish I wasn’t giving you, but it’s important and I’m used to sharing important events in my life with you," the pop star said to her fans at the time. "Usually when things happen to me, I process them and then write music about how I feel, and you hear it much later. This is something my family and I thought you should know about now." While the singer admitted that there were "no red flags" during her mother's initial screening, the results were conclusive for breast cancer. Immediately, an outpouring of support came rushing in for Taylor and her family. Her mother successfully fought the disease after her diagnosis, but the songwriter admitted four years later that her mother's cancer had returned — and that her dad, Scott Swift, had also faced a cancer battle. "I’ve had to learn how to handle serious illness in my family. Both of my parents have had cancer, and my mom is now fighting her battle with it again," Taylor wrote in an essay penned for Elle magazine in March 2019. "It’s taught me that there are real problems and then there’s everything else. My mom’s cancer is a real problem. I used to be so anxious about daily ups and downs. I give all of my worry, stress, and prayers to real problems now." Scroll down for more revelations from Taylor Swift’s vulnerable Variety interview. [podcast_block]

Credit: Jim Smeal/BEI/Shutterstock

Taylor Swift Opens Up About Her Mom's Brain Tumor Diagnosis, the Kanye Feud and More With ‘Variety’: 5 Revelations

Standing strong. Taylor Swift opened up about her mother's unexpected brain tumor diagnosis amid her ongoing battle with breast cancer. The "You Need to Calm Down" singer, 30, told Variety on Tuesday, January 21, that her family was facing a "really hard time" after doctors discovered the tumor in the midst of her mom’s chemotherapy treatment. [caption id="attachment_1703043" align="alignnone" width="447"] Taylor Swift for Variety Magazine.[/caption] "Everyone loves their mom, everyone’s got an important mom. But for me, she’s really the guiding force. Almost every decision I make, I talk to her about it first. So obviously it was a really big deal to ever speak about her illness," the Grammy winner explained. "The symptoms of what a person goes through when they have a brain tumor is nothing like what we’ve ever been through with her cancer before. So it’s just been a really hard time for us as a family." The "Delicate" songstress first revealed that her mother, Andrea Swift, would be seeking treatment for breast cancer in an emotional note posted to Tumblr in April 2015. [sendtonews type="float" key="8CSpZ0ZpYp-3114752-14453"] "I’m writing to you with an update I wish I wasn’t giving you, but it’s important and I’m used to sharing important events in my life with you," the pop star said to her fans at the time. "Usually when things happen to me, I process them and then write music about how I feel, and you hear it much later. This is something my family and I thought you should know about now." While the singer admitted that there were "no red flags" during her mother's initial screening, the results were conclusive for breast cancer. Immediately, an outpouring of support came rushing in for Taylor and her family. Her mother successfully fought the disease after her diagnosis, but the songwriter admitted four years later that her mother's cancer had returned — and that her dad, Scott Swift, had also faced a cancer battle. "I’ve had to learn how to handle serious illness in my family. Both of my parents have had cancer, and my mom is now fighting her battle with it again," Taylor wrote in an essay penned for Elle magazine in March 2019. "It’s taught me that there are real problems and then there’s everything else. My mom’s cancer is a real problem. I used to be so anxious about daily ups and downs. I give all of my worry, stress, and prayers to real problems now." Scroll down for more revelations from Taylor Swift’s vulnerable Variety interview. [podcast_block]

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Starring in 'Cats'

"I had a really great time working on that weird-ass movie. I’m not gonna retroactively decide that it wasn’t the best experience," the former country singer said of her time filming for the movie musical. "I never would have met Andrew Lloyd Webber or gotten to see how he works, and now he’s my buddy. I got to work with the sickest dancers and performers. No complaints."

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'Taylor Swift: Miss Americana'

"I chose Netflix because it’s a very vast, accessible medium to people who are just like, ‘Hey, what’s this? I’m bored.’ I love that," Taylor said while discussing her upcoming Netflix documentary. "I do so many things that cater specifically to fans that like my music, I think it’s important to put yourself out there to people who don’t care at all about you."

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Becoming a Brand

"The bigger your career gets, the more you struggle with the idea that a lot of people see you the same way they see an iPhone or a Starbucks," she explained. “They’ve been inundated with your name in the media, and you become a brand. That’s inevitable for me, but I do think that it’s really necessary to feel like I can still communicate with people. And as a songwriter, it’s really important to still feel human and process things in a human way. The through line of all that is humanity, and reaching out and talking to people and having them see things that aren’t cute ... There’s a lot that’s not cute in this documentary."

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Her Kanye Feud

"I could have just curled up and decided I’m never going to one of those events ever again, or it could make me work harder than anyone expects me to, and try things no one expected, and crave that respect — and hopefully one day get it," Taylor explained after reflecting on the infamous 2009 VMAs moment with Kanye West. "I felt like I finally got that respect [from West], but then soon realized that for him it was about him creating some revisionist history where he was right all along, and it was correct, right and decent for him to get up and do that to a teenage girl."

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Finally Speaking Up

"Using my voice to try to advocate was the only choice to make. Because I’ve talked about equality and sung about it in songs like ‘Welcome to New York,’ but we are at a point where human rights are being violated," she said of her dedication to the LGBTQ community. "When you’re saying that certain people can be kicked out of a restaurant because of who they love or how they identify, and these are actual policies that certain politicians vocally stand behind, and they disguise them as family values, that is sinister. So, so dark."