The 7 Biggest Celebrity Feuds of the Decade
What is it about celebrities sparring in public that feels so delicious? Maybe it’s the way Twitter and Instagram and the Notes app make it all too easy to follow the drama as it unfolds. Or maybe it’s the validation—that celebs really are just like us, at least sometimes: caught up in their emotions, petty, prone to subtweeting. As the 2010s draw to a close, here’s a look back at the celebrity feuds that defined the decade.
Mariah Carey vs. Jennifer Lopez
Long before Keke Palmer said sorry to that man/Dick Cheney, Mimi informed a German TV network that she was unfamiliar with her red-hot contemporary Jennifer Lopez, sparking the iconic “I don’t know her” meme and an ingenious new shade strategy. As Carey told Pitchfork in 2018: “I really was trying to say something nice or say nothing at all.” The feud rumors raged on when Lopez was caught scrolling through Instagram during Carey’s performance at the Billboard Music Awards in May 2015. “I watched a lot of it,” Lopez said during an episode of Watch What Happens Live. “It was a long performance.” Asked about Carey’s original comments by Wendy Williams in 2016, Lopez quipped: “She’s forgetful, I guess.”
Kim Cattrall vs. Sarah Jessica Parker
Premiere Of "Did You Hear About The Morgans?" - After Party
Let’s just say the on-screen Sex and the City besties were not meeting up for cosmopolitans this decade. Murmurs that Cattrall was not pleased with her Sex and the City movie salary in 2008 turned into reports that Parker and Cattrall were no longer speaking, “making everyone on the set of the new Sex and the City movie uncomfortable.” After a glimmer of peace, including Parker saying that she “loves” Kim, came round two: In 2017, Parker shared her disappointment that a third SATC movie wasn’t happening, reportedly because of Cattrall’s salary demands. Cattrall tweeted that the only “demand” she made was to not do the movie; she also insisted in a Piers Morgan interview that Parker “could’ve been nicer.” It ended even uglier: After Parker wrote condolences on Cattrall’s Instagram following the death of her brother, the erstwhile Samantha Jones accused her of “exploiting” her loss.
Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump
Candidates Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump Hold Second Presidential Debate At Washington University
There could be no more vitriolic or consequential “celebrity” feud of the decade than the battle between the 2016 presidential contenders. From Trump tracking Clinton menacingly during the second debate to nicknaming her “Crooked Hillary” and threatening to “lock her up,” the historic clash continued even after Trump’s electoral college victory—even today, he continues to tweet about her. And yet, while Trump won the presidential battle, Clinton has won the war of words: Earlier this year, after Trump tweeted his joy that Clinton would not run again in 2020, she responded: “Why are you so obsessed with me?”
Drake vs. Kanye West
The beef began in May 2018, after West served as producer on a Pusha T track, “Infrared,” that took several shots at Drake, who responded with “Duppy Freestyle,” essentially accusing West of lifting lyrics from him. West apologized to Drake later that year: He told the rapper, “Let me start by apologizing for stepping on your release date in the first place….We were building a bond and working on music together,” but soon backtracked, slamming Drake for possibly alluding to Kim Kardashian West on “In My Feelings” and rattling off dozens of tweets demanding an apology. By 2019, West appeared to have simmered down, telling Rolling Stone: “You cannot be in service to God and be mad at your brother next door. I go to Drake’s house…and just will leave my phone number.”
Katy Perry vs. Taylor Swift
2011 American Music Awards - Backstage And Audience
The former besties spent the decade circling each other on Twitter, from Swift telling Rolling Stone in 2014 that “Bad Blood” was about another pop star to Perry tweeting, “Watch out for the Regina George in sheep’s clothing.” By 2017, Perry said on James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke, “She started it, and it’s time for her to finish it.” But after all of that bad blood, the two made up in 2019 over a batch of cookies and a message in icing: “Peace at Last.”
Evan Lysacek vs. Johnny Weir
2008 U.S. Figure Skating Championships Day 8
Not since Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding have two American figure-skating team members had such an icy relationship. Harken back to 2010, when Lysacek suggested Weir lacked talent. That same year, Weir would call Lysacek a “slore” on The Wendy Williams Show and openly tell People, “We are at war…my claws are out.” Lysacek, who won gold at the 2010 Olympics, apologized afterward in a statement to People, calling Weir “an accomplished and talented skater.”
Vin Diesel vs. Dwayne Johnson
Fast and Furious 5 - Premiere in Rio de Janeiro
Perhaps the most underrated celebrity feud of the 2010s was the artist formerly known as The Rock allegedly alluding to his Fast and the Furious costar Vin Diesel as a “candy ass” in a (since-deleted) Facebook post in 2016. “Some conduct themselves as stand up men and true professionals, while others don’t,” Johnson wrote. “The ones that don’t are too chicken shit to do anything about it anyway. Candy asses.” In 2017, Johnson explained to Entertainment Tonight that the clash was a matter of “different philosophies,” but Diesel seemed to tell a different version. “I know he appreciates how much I work this franchise. In my house, he’s Uncle Dwayne,” he told USA Today.
Originally Appeared on Vogue
