Earlier this month, Lorde came under fire when she likened her friendship with Taylor Swift to spending time with someone with an autoimmune disease.
Now, the singer has taken to Twitter to set the record straight on their friendship, after she appeared to reveal that she wasn't part of Taylor's infamous 'squad' of famous friends in a TV interview.
Speaking to Sunrise TV host David Koch, Lorde revealed that she doesn't 'think too hard' about mingling with A-listers, because if you start doing so, 'you'll just go insane.'
'Also, I don't hang out with these people at all,' she went on to say. When the host questioned this, noting 'Hang on! You're a part of Taylor's squad,' she appeared to visibly cringe and groan, before following up with a cryptic answer.
'I mean, you make friends in different places but for the most part I'm not like, calling up my idols for advice necessarily.'
After media outlets picked up on her comments, and took them to mean that she was no longer close with the 1989 singer, Lorde posted a statement on Twitter to clear things up once and for all, describing Taylor as her 'dear friend' who 'has been there for [her] in all [Lorde's] dark and light moments.'
'Wow – something of a frustrating thing to have to address online but here we go. Taylor is a dear friend. I love her very much. In the interview in question I had just been talking about Bowie and Patti Smith – those were the ‘idols’ I was referring to that I was saying I’m friends with, not Taylor!' she began, before touching on her frustration with the public perception of Taylor's headline-grabbing 'squad.'
'I’ve always found people’s perception of this ‘squad’ idea frustrating in the past; it was never some exclusive club or secret society, but a wide circle of people, some of whom I know, and some who I’ve never met, like most wide groups of friends,' she explained. Forgive me for the mild eyeroll I popped when it was brought up as if we’re all blood members of a secret cult.'
'Really sh---y to wake up to headlines about whether or not you’ve jumped ship on someone you deeply respect and ride for. I want to say one more time that Taylor has been there for me in all my dark and light moments these past 5 years. All of them. I feel truly terrible that it would ever seem like I wasn’t faithfully her person.'
Her comments came after she made a misguided allusion to 'autoimmune disease' while talking about high profile friendships. Speaking to The Guardian to mark the release of her second album earlier this month, the singer discussed the challenges of being close to someone who is internationally famous. While she didn’t namecheck Taylor directly, her comments were taken to allude to the 1989 star.
‘It’s like having a friend with very specific allergies. There are certain places you can’t go together. Certain things you can’t do,’ she told the newspaper.
‘There are these different sets of considerations within the friendship,’ she continued. ‘It’s like having a friend with an autoimmune disease.’
Social media users were quick to point out the insensitivity of Lorde’s comments, with one Twitter user pointing out that Selena Gomez, another close friend of Taylor, suffers from lupus, an autoimmune disease.
‘I wonder how Selena Gomez feels about this. What an incredibly ignorant analogy to make @lorde,’ they wrote.
Admitting that her analogy had been severely misjudged, the singer responded to criticism, replying with: ‘Didn’t mention Taylor, but regardless, I f—ked up and that was really insensitive. I’m sorry.’
Elsewhere in her Guardian interview, the singer discussed how her famous friends have acted as a support network and helped her to navigate a career in the public eye.
‘It’s an element of wanting to stick together,’ she explained. ‘Because it can be so scary to do this. These friendships, they’re about having a hand put on your shoulder by someone who knows. They’re about hearing, “I’ve done it, too.”’
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