Once connected by friendship, Charli XCX and Taylor Swift now find themselves embroiled in a feud so intense that rumors suggest the stars have composed diss tracks aimed squarely at each other.
Charli seemed to add fuel to the fire this past weekend by showing up to the wedding of Taylor’s former flame, Matty Healy, who tied the knot with model Gabbriette Bechtel.
The 33-year-old hitmaker dazzled at the celebration, donning a striking black gown that featured a daring thigh-high split, perfectly accentuating her toned legs.
Charli’s elegant dress, detailed with ruffles, hugged her figure flawlessly. She completed her eye-catching ensemble with chic black heels and a stylish clutch.
The picturesque Castillo del Lago, once owned by Madonna, served as the wedding venue, where Charli was accompanied by her husband, George Daniel. Influencers Stassie Karanikola and Devon Lee Carlson, along with actor Duke Nicholson, reportedly also made appearances among the guests.
While it made sense that Charli bagged an invite to Matty’s wedding – given her husband is his 1975 bandmate – it’s unclear if she received an invitation to Taylor’s wedding earlier this month.
Taylor Swift’s frenemy Charli XCX put on a leggy display in a black gown as she attended Matty Healy’s wedding to Gabbriette Bechtel at Castillo del Lago in Los Angeles on Saturday
A source exclusively told the Daily Mail that Matty and Gabbriette tied the knot underneath the Hollywood sign just as the sun began to set. Matty previously dated Charli’s friend Taylor
Just two weeks ago, Matty’s superstar ex Taylor tied the knot with Travis Kelce at a lavish wedding at Madison Square Garden in New York.
There were several celebrities, including Graham Norton and Hugh Grant, among the 1000 attendees.
Yet Charli was not one of them, despite previously being a close friend of Taylor’s and performing together.
Their relationship is thought to have broken down after Taylor and Matty split in 2023.
Three months after rocker Matty and Taylor parted ways, he was spotted enjoying a steamy PDA with Gabbriette in New York City.
Matty and Gabbriette announced their engagement in 2024, after a whirlwind nine-month romance and not long after Taylor and Travis went public with their romance.
A source said that Matty and Taylor ‘started dating these people at the same time; it’s not that unusual’.
Taylor and Charli had known each other for years with Taylor bringing Charli out as a support act on her 2018 reputation tour.
Yet with Charli also a longtime friend of Matty’s, it seems she placed herself in his camp following his split.
Charli and Taylor’s feud came to a head last year after Taylor’s seemingly pointed words about Charli’s ‘coke habit’ in the track which features on Taylor’s new album, The Life Of A Showgirl.
Taylor recently admitted her song, Actually Romantic, is about an ‘adversarial relationship.’
Sharing a strikingly similar title to Charli’s 2018 track Everything Is Romantic, she sings: ‘I heard you call me “Boring Barbie” when the coke’s got you brave.’
Many listeners interpreted it as a pointed jab the singer, who has openly referenced drug use in her own music.
Two weeks ago, Taylor tied the knot with Travis Kelce at a lavish wedding in New York. Charli was not in attendance, despite previously being her close friend of Taylor’s (pictured in 2015)
Charli and Taylor’s relationship is thought to have broken down after Taylor and Matty split in June 2023 (pictured in May that year)
Taylor’s lyrics include: ‘High-fived my ex and then you said you’re glad he ghosted me / Wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face’ – seemingly a reference to Charli’s friendship with Matty.
She also hints that the singer in question is seemingly obsessed with her, adding: ‘But it’s actually sweet / All the time you’ve spent on me / It’s honestly wild.’
Taylor opened up about the song’s lyrics in the album’s accompanying film The Official Release Party of a Showgirl, saying: ‘It’s a love letter to someone who hates you.
‘There can be this moment where it’s unveiled to you, through things that they do that are very overt. And, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve just started to be like, “Oh my God, you did so much with this.” It’s flattering.’
She added: ‘That is, wow, that is very, very sweet of you to think about me this much, even if it’s negative. In my industry, attention is affection, and you’ve given me a whole lot of it.’
Meanwhile, Charli was rumoured to have written a song about Taylor called Sympathy Is A Knife which featured on her hit album Brat.
In the song, Charli sang: ‘Don’t know if I’m spiralling/ One voice tells me that they laugh/ George says I’m just paranoid/ Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show/ Fingers crossed behind my back/ I hope they break up real quick.’
Taylor gave further clues about Actually Romantic’s subject in an audio track-by-track breakdown of the new album for Amazon Music, in which she said: ‘It’s a song about realising that someone else has kind of had a one-sided, adversarial relationship with you that you didn’t know about.
‘And all of a sudden they start doing too much and they start letting you know that actually, you’ve been living in their head rent-free and you had no idea.’
During Taylor’s 2018 Reputation stadium tour, Charli opened for the 14-time Grammy Award winner on more than 50 nights.
But the first hint of trouble seemed to brew the following year in 2019, as while speaking to Pitchfork, Charli said: ‘As an artist, it kind of felt like I was getting up onstage and waving to 5-year-olds.’
She went on to say following the tour it made her decide to never open for anyone again.
Charli added: ‘I’ve done so much of it, and it really cemented my status as this underdog character, I need to just own my own f***ing s*** finally.’
Following backlash, she later took to her social media to say her comments had been taken out of context, insisting: ‘As I say in the article and have said many times before, I am extremely grateful to Taylor for inviting me to open for her.
‘She’s one of the biggest artists of my generation and the Reputation tour was one of the biggest tours in history.’
She said that, prior to the tour, she had been playing ’18+ club shows’ and performing for ‘all ages’ had been ‘new to me’.