Thanks to Taylor Swift's frequent Easter eggs, Swift, with her acquired detective skills, may be able to cure incurable diseases—but even they sometimes go wrong. Over the years, Swift's biggest fans have concocted a number of elaborate conspiracy theories about Taylor Swift that are intricately detailed and truly wild, focusing on her personal life or the 11-time Grammy winner's Next steps. Some of it turned out to be accurate considering the singer's attention to detail is a little scary. Many theories have merit but have yet to be proven true or false, while others are completely unfounded.
In 2022 alone, Swifties made some mistakes on her tenth studio album , Midnights , which included a backstory to a fan-favorite song. But that doesn't even compare to the messier Swift theories, some of which date back to 2014 (anyone remember the baby snake rumors?). To wrap up what has been a very eventful year for Swift, here are 10 Swift conspiracy theories that are proven to be completely false — but are still fun to imagine.
Taylor has no belly button
During the 1989 era, some speculated that Swift didn't have a belly button because she mostly wore high-waisted outfits that naturally hid her belly button. It turns out there's a reason, as Swift told Lucky in 2014. "When you start showing your belly button, you're really committing to the abdominal thing," she says. "I only focus on the midsection - you can only see the lower ribs. I don't want people to know if I have one." However, after paparazzi secretly snapped her on vacation in a bikini, she decided to usurp the photos , and put her belly button to rest in a since-deleted Instagram post, putting the rumors to rest once and for all.
her name is becky
Becky might just be the beginning of crazy Swift conspiracy theories. In 2014, an iconic Tumblr account posted a now-infamous Swift High School photo claiming it was their friend Becky who died after smoking marijuana. After one user responded, "Pretty sure that's Taylor Swift," another affirmed, "No, it's Becky," and the word later became part of Swift's lexicon. Swift became part of the joke for wearing a "No, Becky" shirt.
Taylor gave birth to a snake baby
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Do we need an explanation for why this misguided theory turned out to be wrong? Still, Swift did herself no favors when she joked on Instagram in October 2018 that she was a "proud snake mom."
“Karma” is the remnant of karma
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Fans had long speculated that Swift was planning to release an album called Karma in 2016, before Kimye-gate caused her to halt plans and scrap the album entirely, before ultimately releasing Reputation in 2017. There are some solid hints to support this theory, but it was strongest when Swift revealed that the 11th track on Midnights is called "Karma," accompanied by a maniacal laugh. This added to the belief that Karma was real, and the long-lost title track finally came to light, but fans jumped to conclusions prematurely, as Swift has since confirmed that every song on "Midnights" was specifically for the album Create new materials. So the mystery of karma remains, and while there's no hint of it in Midnight , there's also no clear evidence that the theory isn't true.
Woodville 's presence
After Swift made the surprise announcement that "Evermore" was a "sister record" to her previous surprise 2020 album Folklore , fans began to think it was actually the second part of a trilogy. The theory gained more traction after fans discovered the word "Woodvale" on some CD copies of Folklore (there was no text on the album's eight covers), leading fans to believe another A companion album titled Woodvale is due any day now. But Swift denied this, explaining that "Woodvale" was just a test word used when designing the Folklore album cover to prevent the actual title from being leaked before it was announced. Still, to this day, some truth supporters in Woodville hold out hope.
Midnight phone call upside down
Swift revealed the tracklist for Midnights in one take on her TikTok series "Midnights Mayhem With Me," in which she pulled one of 13 numbers from a bingo machine and revealed the song's title over an old-fashioned landline. During two of the songs, "Anti-Hero" and "Vigilante Shit," she turned her phone upside down, which fans took to be a code for what was to come. "Anti-Hero" ended up being the album's lead single and first music video, leading some to believe that "Vigilante Shit" would be the second video teased during the midnight release week. Instead, the video was for "Bejeweled," and the music video at the end of the midnight trailer was for "Lavender Haze," and it's clear that having the phone upside down makes absolutely no sense.
Taylor deports her evil twin to Japan
The internet has spotted a pair of Swift's so-called "twins," but nothing is funnier than the rumor that she sent her twin sisters to Japan. In 2015, an old McDonald's ad in Japan went viral because the model looked eerily similar to Swift, only wearing a bright red wig and Ronald McDonald stripes. Fans are wildly speculating that this is Swift's true evil twin, who was exiled to Japan so she wouldn't hinder her sister's career, forcing her to model for McDonald's. Swift only has one sibling, a younger brother named Austin, so this theory is untraceable. But honestly, if this were true, it wouldn’t be the worst life. That tomato burger looks good.
There are five holes in the fence
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In February 2019, Swift shared a photo on Instagram of herself looking through a fence. There were five holes in said fence. Many fans believed what this meant and held many different theories about what the five holes could mean before each one was proven wrong. Swift even joked that in August, five days before the release of her 2019 album Lover , she retweeted the same photo and wrote, "Okay, now there are five holes in the fence." Needless to say, Swifties never live up to this.
Those 1989 (Taylor version) Easter eggs
To be fair, Swift is wrong about this, and it's partly Swift's fault. Following the release of "Fearless" (Taylor's Version) in April 2021, Swift appeared on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" and dropped countless hints about the upcoming "1989" (Taylor's Version) , all but confirming that this will be her next re-recording. Instead, she released "Red" (Tyler's version) two months later, and although three singles have since been released, a new version in 1989 has yet to be released (possibly due to the recently dismissed "Shake It Off" lawsuit).
Geller
With each album release, a segment of Swift's population would try to find clues to prove their belief that Swift was actually gay or bisexual, giving rise to the #Gaylor fandom. Some of these fans believe the singer dated Karlie Kloss, citing crowd photos that some claim are of the two kissing at a concert, while Diana Agger Dianna Agron denied the rumors in a 2012 interview. Since then, these fans have speculated that songs from "Betty" to "Lavender Haze" contain LGBTQ-coded lyrics, even if the singer refutes this, as was the case with "Lavender Haze." While Swift has become an outspoken ally to the LGBTQ+ community, she has never publicly addressed the Geller theory or Kloss dating rumors, but her six-year relationship with boyfriend Joe Alwyn speaks for itself.
