She’s one of the biggest names in the pop industry with a close-knit girl group supporting her every move.

But Taylor’s Swift’s squad of girlfriends may be at risk of putting her out of style, with a string of her BFF’s currently facing controversies.

Fans have branded Taylor ‘spineless’ over her friendship with apparent Trump supporter Brittany Mahomes.

Meanwhile, a friend of Taylor’s for over a decade – Lena Dunham – has long found herself the centre of negative attention.

So, will the singer’s squad go out of style? Here, FEMAIL explores the pop star’s friends that have faced backlash.
The Bad Blood singer has enjoyed a friendship with The Girl actress Lena Dunham for a decade.

The duo’s sisterhood began online back in 2012 when Lena first tweeted about how important the songstress’ music was to her.

Praising the artist, she wrote: ‘Judging by how much she’s helped me thus far, Taylor Swift is going to write the song that finally gets me comfortable with death.’

Later that year in October, after the release of Taylor’s album Red, Lena took to Twitter once again as she penned: ‘Update: @taylorswif3’s album is triumphant. If she’d been here when I was in college I would have written papers on her, not Sylvia Plath’.

Overjoyed at her compliment, Taylor instantly replied as she raved about Lena’s comedy series Girls.

She replied: ‘@lenadunham, you made my day with that. I’m now going to sit in my dressing room reciting my fav @girlsHBO quotes.. Which is all of them.’
After Taylor decided to take the jump and followed Lena, it wasn’t long before the director replied and the friendship began.
The pair were seen cuddling up together at the Grammy’s in 2013, at the time when Lena was dating Taylor’s now producer Jack Antonoff.

In 2015, the star appeared in Taylor’s Bad Blood video which saw the star recruit her famous pack of girlfriend’s for her hit single with Kendrick Lamar.

In 2021, Taylor had the honour of serving as one of Lena’s bridesmaids at her wedding to husband Luis Felber at Soho’s Union Club in London.

Getting married after the COVID lockdown, Taylor was one of nine bridesmaids as Lena confessed she hadn’t seen some of her friends in over a year due to the pandemic.

She explained: ‘I spent so much time during the pandemic talking to my girlfriends about our feelings over FaceTime, but a few of my best friends I haven’t seen in over a year.

‘And, you know, my girlfriends have had to deal with a lot of not-so-happy things with me in our adulthood, so to be able to celebrate something joyful and use it as an excuse to be together was very special.’

It’s clear the pair have a special bond with one another, but Lena has often found herself in the spotlight, and not always for positive reasons.
In 2015, Lena was caught up in an anti-Semitism row after writing a controversial article comparing her Jewish boyfriend and her dog.

The then-28-year-old prompted the storm after writing a quiz in the March 30 edition of New Yorker magazine – asking readers if a number of statements referred to her dog or ex-boyfriend Jack Antonoff.

They included: ‘He doesn’t tip’, ‘he never brings his wallet anywhere’ and ‘he has hair all over his body, like most males who share his background’.
Ms Dunham, whose mother is Jewish, has been criticised by Twitter users, as well as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) – an organisation which fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry.
Also among the 35 statements were ‘my grandma Dottie loves him and says he’s a ‘good, good boy” and ‘bald men trigger a primal fear in him’.

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL national director, said: ‘Some will certainly find Lena Dunham’s stereotypes about cheap Jews offensive. Others will take issue with the very idea of comparing a dog and a Jewish boyfriend.

‘While we understand that humor is its own special brand of expression and always try to give leeway to comedians, we wish that she had chosen another, less insensitive way to publicly reflect on her boyfriend’s virtues and vices.

‘We are surprised that the New Yorker chose to print it.’

In 2016, the creator and star of HBO’s Girls made the controversial statement an episode of her podcast, Women of the Hour.

Describing the experiences of loved ones who had had abortions and a visit she made to Texas Planned Parenthood, she commended the ‘bravery’ and ‘self-knowledge’ of women who have had abortions, adding that she has realized her need to put her own stigma surrounding the issue ‘in the garbage.’

She concluded by saying: ‘Now I can say that I still haven’t had an abortion, but I wish I had.’

Her comments were widely condemned by women who had had terminations, who branded them ‘sickening’.
After initially remaining silent in the face of their criticism, she later issued an apology on Instagram, and said she has made a ‘sizeable donation’ to Abortion Funds, which helps women pay for terminations.

She shared a picture of the the word ‘choice’ written in white chalk on a blackboard on the social networking site, together with a long apology for what she described as a ‘distasteful joke’.

‘My latest podcast episode was meant to tell a multifaceted story about reproductive choice in America, to explain the many reasons women do or don’t choose to have children and what bodily autonomy really means,’ she wrote.

‘I’m so proud of the medley of voices in the episode. I truly hope a distasteful joke on my part won’t diminish the amazing work of all the women who participated.’

She went on to say she had adopted a ‘delusional girl’ persona, but had not intended to ‘trivialize the emotional and physical challenges of terminating a pregnancy’.
She’s one of Taylor’s BFF’s, with the pop star even hosting Blake’s 37th birthday party at her Rhode Island mansion.

But Blake Lively’s stint of being perceived as unproblematic appears to be nearing an end, with the actress from Los Angeles, currently undergoing intense public scrutiny.

It comes after the release of her latest film, It Ends with Us, which follows a woman named Lily Bloom, played by Blake, who becomes embroiled in an abusive relationship with a man named Ryle Kincaid, portrayed by Justin Baldoni.

But when the Gossip Girl alum sat down with fellow cast members Jenny Slate and Isabela Ferrer, as well as author Colleen to discuss the new flick, the light-hearted nature of their conversation did not settle well with viewers given the film’s themes of domestic violence.

It’s not the first time Blake has come under fire, with the actress having made a string of controversial decisions throughout her career.
But it wasn’t Blake’s dress or the intricate details of their wedding that spurred controversy, it was the location – Boone Hall Plantation.

It is one of America’s oldest working plantations. In the 19th century, it was owned by Henry and John Horlbeck, who were in the brick business, building many of the public spaces in downtown Charleston using bricks from the plantation.

Boone Hall Plantation also famously appeared in Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling’s 2004 movie, The Notebook.

The couple were subsequently criticised for glamorising a place where slaves once suffered and died.

In May 2020, eight years after the wedding, Ryan and Blake donated $200,000 to the NAACP.

In addition to the donation, they issued a statement, which read in part, ‘We’re ashamed that in the past we’ve allowed ourselves to be uninformed about how deeply rooted systemic racism is.’

During the height of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in August 2020, Ryan revealed his regrets for the wedding venue in conversation with Fast Company.
The Deadpool actor called the choice of location ‘something we’ll always be deeply and unreservedly sorry for’.

He said: ‘It’s impossible to reconcile. What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest. What we saw after was a place built upon devastating tragedy.’
‘Years ago, we got married again at home – but shame works in weird ways. A giant f***ing mistake like that can either cause you to shut down or it can reframe things and move you into action,’ continued the action star.

‘It doesn’t mean you won’t f*** up again. But repatterning and challenging lifelong social conditioning is a job that doesn’t end.’

By 1850, Boone Hall was producing four million bricks per year using 85 slaves. Since the 1950s it has been owned by the McRae family, who opened the 738-acre estate up to public tours in 1956.

12 feet by 30 feet slave cabins still remain on the property, and today house information about the slaves who lived there.

The cabins were in use well into the 20th century, as they were occupied by sharecroppers through the 1940s.

‘Years ago, we got married again at home – but shame works in weird ways. A giant f***ing mistake like that can either cause you to shut down or it can reframe things and move you into action,’ continued the action star.

‘It doesn’t mean you won’t f*** up again. But repatterning and challenging lifelong social conditioning is a job that doesn’t end.’

By 1850, Boone Hall was producing four million bricks per year using 85 slaves. Since the 1950s it has been owned by the McRae family, who opened the 738-acre estate up to public tours in 1956.

12 feet by 30 feet slave cabins still remain on the property, and today house information about the slaves who lived there.

The cabins were in use well into the 20th century, as they were occupied by sharecroppers through the 1940s.
Blake was later criticised after she piled on Kate Middleton’s photoshop gaffe in an Instagram post promoting her new line of drinks posting a heavily edited picture.

Starting in January, Kate was scrutinised more than usual when palace officials announced that she was hospitalised for abdominal surgery. They said she would not appear for public engagements until Easter.

Her decision to keep details private fuelled a social media frenzy. The release of a photo to mark Mother’s Day was later withdrawn by news agencies across the world after it was deemed to have been too heavily edited.

However, Blake quickly found a way to market her drinks brand on Instagram using the photo editing scandal.

Lively, known for her close friendship to Taylor Swift, wrote in the caption: ‘I’m so excited to share this new photo I just took today to announce our 4 new @bettybuzz & @bettybooze products! Now you know why I’ve been MIA.’

(Armani)