Katy Perry speaks about 'feud' with Taylor Swift and calls out the double standards women face

Katy Perry has hit out at the double standards women in the spotlight face, specifically in reference to her ‘feud’ with Taylor Swift.

In a conversation with Howard Stern on Tuesday morning, the “Roar” singer spoke about how gossip and speculation flared up tensions.

She said it “takes time” for the truth to come out, comparing it to:

Gossip in life can take the elevator but the truth takes the stairs.

For background, the pair had a falling out over some background dancers who left Taylor's tour to work for Katy.

Taylor then wrote and released the song “Bad Blood”, which Taylor confirmed was about another female music artist – but didn’t mention Katy by name – who “basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour”. It’s widely acknowledged to be about Katy.

Last year, Katy put the ‘feud’ to bed by sending Taylor a literal olive branch and a plate of chocolate chip cookies.

But speaking about their relationship now, Katy said:

Now, we’re super friendly. I always wanted the best for her and now we can talk about the best we want for each other.

What I’m so grateful for is we did get to make up publicly and got to be an example of redemption for young girls.

Katy also took the opportunity to discuss an important double standard when it comes to men and women in the music industry.

She added:

You never see, like, articles about Ed Sheehan and Justin Bieber in a fight or Shawn Mendes and Niall Horan in a fight. It’s gonna take audiences and media and artists a lot of just shifting of consciousness.

During the interview, Katy also opened up about currently being pregnant, as well as overcoming depression to create her new album, Smile.

It’s due to be released 14 August.

The first single – also called "Smile" – dropped 14 July.