Taylor Swift is the most talked-about woman in the world, releasing her highly-anticipated double album, The Tortured Poets Department, on Friday, featuring 31 brand new tracks.
The viral album is all anyone can talk about, with Swifties coming out in force to unpick theories around the many high profile name references and A-list credits.
Swift's major release has resurfaced a multitude of anecdotes about the singer, with one going particularly viral over the weekend.
The anecdote in question surrounds Prince William, with the future King once persuaded to take to the stage at a charity event with the 'Blank Space' singer to perform 'Livin' on a Prayer' with Jon Bon Jovi.
It was Prince William's hilarious words about the 2013 performance that resurfaced this weekend, with the royal famously recalling the moment that took place at the Centrepoint Gala Dinner at Kensington Palace, during a podcast appearance.
"After Jon does his first song, there’s a pause, and [Taylor] turns to me. She puts her hand on my arm, looks me in the eye, and says, ‘Come on, William. Let’s go and sing,’” Prince William recalled in a 2021 episode of Apple Fitness+’s Time to Walk podcast.
“To this day, I still do not know what came over me," he continued. "Honestly, even now I’m cringing at what happened next, and I don’t understand why I gave in. But frankly, if Taylor Swift looks you in the eye, touches your arm, and says, ‘Come with me’. I got up like a puppy and went, ‘Yeah OK, that seems like a great idea. I’ll follow you.
“I walked up on stage in a trance, and then sort of halfway through Jon Bon Jovi’s ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ song, I wake up, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘Am I standing on the stage singing when I don’t even know the words?’”
“Beneath my black tie, there was a lot of sweating going on", he later added. "I felt like a swan, where I was trying to keep myself composed on the outside, but inside, the little legs are paddling fast.”
Swift has also opened up about the performance, explaining during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show that "it was insane".
“I was very nervous for the whole thing," she recalled. "Because I was at Kensington Palace and it was my first royal encounter of sorts.”
Well, this is hilarious.
