The 82-year-old entertainment mogul filed his response Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, where Michaels – aka David Armstrong – sued last month. The two married in 2023 and Geffen filed for divorce earlier this year.

The 32-year-old Michaels alleged that his much-older ex ensnared him in a years-long web of exploitation after shopping for a “vulnerable” partner online, then “masquerading as a white knight while hiding behind wealth, philanthropy and fame.” The couple reportedly did not have a prenuptial agreement.

Also filed in Superior Court, Michaels’ lawsuit says he was a “young vulnerable black man, orphaned as a toddler” who wound up in foster care at 18 months old. It says the couple met via the website Seekingarrangements.com, where Geffen “learned of Michaels’ troubled past — his history of neglect, poverty, instability and legal entanglements,” and leveraged that to make him “an object of exploitation … whose trauma could be weaponized for Geffen’s personal gratification and public image.”

In their response, Geffen’s attorneys at Glaser Weil described Armstrong’s complaint as “ludicrous and contrived,” accusing him of attempting to wage a public relations campaign while seeking a large settlement.

“Plaintiff cannot embarrass Geffen and extort a settlement with petty gossip and salacious lies,” according to the filing obtained Saturday by TheWrap.

Armstrong, a former model and adult film actor, alleges Geffen promised him lifelong financial support and shared ownership of assets during their time together. Geffen denies making any such promises, noting that his estate plan and financial records contain no evidence of agreements to provide Armstrong with property or ongoing support.

The defense paints Armstrong as a reckless spender who abused Geffen’s generosity during their two-year marriage. According to the filing, Armstrong used assistants to charge hundreds of thousands of dollars to Geffen’s accounts for luxury clothing, elective cosmetic procedures and extravagant gifts for friends. In the final months of the marriage, Geffen claims Armstrong also spent heavily on OnlyFans subscriptions and male escorts.

Geffen’s lawyers argue Armstrong misrepresented his behavior throughout their relationship, hiding extensive drug use and multiple extramarital affairs. The filing contends that while Geffen helped pay for Armstrong’s rehab and counseling, Armstrong’s drug use — including cocaine and ketamine — persisted.

“Geffen loved Plaintiff and treated him with nothing but kindness, respect, and generosity throughout their relationship,” the filing reads. Staff and friends, it adds, described Geffen as treating Armstrong “like a king.”

The defense also highlights that Armstrong continues to live rent-free in one of Geffen’s New York apartments and receives voluntary monthly payments, contradicting allegations that Geffen abandoned him and left him homeless and destitute.

The filing requests that Armstrong’s complaint be dismissed with prejudice and that Geffen be awarded legal fees. It also includes a demand for a jury trial, no date for which has been set.

The post David Geffen Responds to Ex-Husband’s ‘Ludicrous and Contrived’ Lawsuit: ‘Petty Gossip and Salacious Lies’ appeared first on TheWrap.

The eight pages, prepared by U.S. staff and left behind in the business center at Hotel Captain Cook, bore U.S. State Department markings and were later found by three guests who declined to be identified, NPR reported.

The papers included precise meeting times and locations for the Friday summit inside Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, as well as phone numbers for American government employees, according to the reports. Three hotel guests found the documents around 9 a.m. and took photos later reviewed by NPR.

The first page outlined the sequence of meetings, including the specific rooms where they were to take place, and noted Trump’s plan to present Putin with an “American Bald Eagle Desk Statue.”

White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly on Saturday dismissed the documents as a “multi-page lunch menu” and said their discovery did not constitute a security breach. The State Department declined to comment.

Other pages contained the names and phone numbers of three U.S. staff members, as well as 13 U.S. and Russian officials, along with phonetic guides for Russian names.

The documents also described a luncheon “in honor of his excellency Vladimir Putin,” thought he lunch was ultimately canceled. The papers included a seating chart that placed Putin across from Trump, who was to be flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles on one side; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steve Witkoff were seated on the other.

Putin was to sit alongside Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov. The menu called for a green salad, filet mignon and halibut olympia, with crème brûlée for dessert.

Jon Michaels, a UCLA law professor who specializes in national security, told NPR the discovery illustrated a lapse in judgment by administration officials.

“It strikes me as further evidence of the sloppiness and incompetence of the administration,” Michaels said. “You just don’t leave things in printers. It’s that simple.”

Earlier in the week, a law enforcement group chat that included members of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement mistakenly added a random participant to a discussion of an ongoing manhunt. In March, national security officials inadvertently included a journalist in a group chat about pending military strikes in Yemen.

The post State Department Papers Found on Alaska Hotel Printer Include Sensitive Details of Trump’s Summit With Putin appeared first on TheWrap.

Luna brought up the topic on Wednesday’s “The Joe Rogan Experience,” a clip from which “Gutfeld!” played Friday night:

“They call them interdimensional beings,” Luna said. “Very credible people have reported that there have been a movement outside time and space. Have I seen a portal? No. Have I seen a spaceship personally? No. Have I seen evidence of this? Yes. Have I seen photo documentation of aircraft that I believe were not made by mankind? Yes.”

Namesake host Greg Gutfeld took the first swing.

“Finally!,” he said. “There you have it! Proof. Proof that maybe somebody was told something from somebody who saw something that might be something from another dimension or something!”

Judging by the audience laughter, they weren’t convinced, either.

“We do have an expert here, Harland [Williams, the comedian who starred in the 1997 film “Rocket Man”], you were an astronaut in the film where you went to Mars … Harland, do you get the feeling they have nothing they just like teasing us?”

Williams noted that we’re told extraterrestrial beings are “way more smart, more intelligent than us,” but still come to Earth and do … crop circles.

“It’s like, we’re smarter than everybody, let’s go to Earth and do donuts in the corn,” Williams joked.

Fellow panelist Michele Tafoya noted that she’s watched “Ancient Aliens” on the History Channel – which can make you think, “maybe.”

“And are we really the only intelligent life out there?,” she said. “I don’t know. But Anna Paulina Luna is not the representative who makes me convinced.”

Williams joked that he’s witnessed “this time and space kind of thing” when he flies on American Airlines: “I get to the terminal and my flight it seems to shift about five hours.”

Gutfeld made the analogy that the UFO issue which “is like a bad boyfriend who strings you a long and offers you nothing forever. But when he called you for a booty call you always answer. Like the issue he is always there but never follows through,” calling them “recreational beliefs.”

For her part, regular panelist Kat Timpf said that full disclosure should be offered to anyone on their deathbed.

“When you are about to die they should let you see whatever documents you want to see,” she said. “You know how there is like last rites? There should be some sort of portal you can log into at the hospital, were pretty much everybody dies, and you can login and see what you want to see.”

Watch the entire exchange in the video above.

The post ‘Gutfeld!’ Laughs Off GOP Rep.’s ‘Interdimensional Beings’ Claim on Joe Rogan: ‘Unconvincing’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

“This is what fighting Donald Trump looks like,” O’Donnell said during his latest segment of the “The Last Word” on MSNBC. “Gavin Newsom and California Democrats have found a way to fight Donald Trump’s attacks on democracy by using democracy against Donald Trump. The biggest state in the union, the richest state in the union has finally been provoked to show Donald Trump just how much power the state has.”

He continued: “Gavin Newsom is now leading California to the rescue of the United States of America, to the rescue of Democracy in America. And today, Gavin Newsom showed millions of people who have been feeling powerless, millions of Californians who voted for the California candidate for president in the last election, that they still have power.”

As Trump continues to evade questions surrounding his relationship to the child sex offender and financier, his likability among Americans has continued to decline at the polls. O’Donnell said the president seeking to gain the Republican House seats is just a strategy Trump’s using to ensure he doesn’t get booted out of the Oval Office during the 2026 midterm elections.

“It is at this low point in Donald Trump’s public support that he has chosen to try to rig Congressional districts in Texas to give Republicans five move Republican seats in the House of Representatives so that Donald Trump can guarantee that Republicans will control the House of Representatives, and he won’t be impeached by the House of Representatives during this term of his presidency,” O’Donnell explained.

O’Donnell went on to explain that Newsom’s move brings new power to the California voter. California has always reigned blue during presidential elections, and despite it being one of the top three largest states in the country, the voting power has hardly no impact on deciding who the next commander-in-chief will be. However, as O’Donnell explains, Newsom’s redistricting mission puts power back into California voters’ hands as they will be able to vote on his “Election Rigging Response Act,” which in turn, if voted in, will grant the Democratic-controlled legislature more power and ultimately pave the way for Trump to potentially be voted out.

“The voters of California can feel left out in presidential elections,” O’Donnell said. “The candidates never bothered to campaign in California because everyone knows how California is going to vote in a presidential election. California doesn’t have the power to turn the election one way or another the way much smaller states like neighboring Arizona do. Voting in California in a presidential election can be an exercise in dutiful civic frustration. Carrying out your civic duty, knowing it won’t make a difference when you’re watching the election returns that night. Today, California Gov. Gavin Newsom changed all that. Today, Gavin Newsom told California voters they hold in their hands the power to break Donald Trump’s grip.”

The post Lawrence O’Donnell Praises Newsom’s Redistricting Push: ‘This Is What Fighting Donald Trump Looks Like’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

“I mean, seriously. What are they doing?” Joe Scarborough said on Friday’s “Morning Joe” episode, as footage of the rally played over his comments. “I don’t know if they’re aware of it, but this is America and the fact that they show up in masks at a political rally. I know, yes, this is ominous, this is this, this is that, blah, blah, blah.”

Several ICE officers can be seen with black masks and sunglasses covering their faces as they stand around in what is presumed to be the rally area. Scarborough went on to say that not only do they look foolish, their presence doesn’t necessarily make it look as if they’re doing their jobs.

“These [agents] really just look stupid and plays right into Gavin Newsom’s hands, plays right into the Democratic Party’s hands and does the exact opposite thing that they would want to do, which is to suggest, ‘We’re not here for political reasons. We’re here to do our job. To arrest those who are in the country illegally.’ Talk about a miss,” Scarborough said.

All this political drama, the ICE agents’ appearance and Newsom’s rally all came about after Texas Republicans announced a push for a mid-decade redistricting before the typical 10-year cycle, which they are doing in an effort to redraw congressional districts with hopes of obtaining at least five more GOP seats in the House before the 2026 midterm elections come around.

Why? Per the Stanford University’s public policy think tank, the Hoover Institution, Texas has argued that the current make up of four House districts is illegal due to three districts consisting mainly Black and Hispanic voters, which they feel could form a majority coalition. The state says that “coalition districts” weaken the goal of “one person, one vote,” which goes against 1965’s Voting Rights Act. As it relates to Trump, some media figures and Newsom himself believe the Trump is pulling the move to save himself from being impeached.

In response, Newsom decided to propose his own mid-decade redistricting map plan as well for Democrats. While a nonpartisan Citizens Redistricting Commission usually handles map drawing, Newsom wants to temporarily override that format until after the 2030 Census to give the Democratic-controlled legislature more power. Per NBC News, on Thursday, Newsom called on California lawmakers to approve his plan, which he is calling the “Election Rigging Response Act,” to appear on the November ballot. If the maps get the greenlight, it would apply to elections from 2026 to 2030.

Right now, California has 52 House seats, 43 are held by Democrats and nine by Republicans. If Newsom’s plan goes forward, Democrats would hold 48 of those seats, which some feel would uphold voters’ preferences.

“Morning Joe” states, both parties could be stepping out of line with the moves, mentioning that both parties are having wins and losses. Scarborough said Trump’s approval rating is “upside down,” with many Americas happy with some of Trump’s implementation of his policies, including some of the elements in his crackdown on illegal immigration. And on the other side, Democrats are gaining wind among Americans at the Senate level.

“Democrats are taking three, four, five, six, even seven-point leads in generic ballots,” Scarborough explained. “There’s a Politico story saying the Democrats, if they squint hard enough, they actually can see a Senate majority.”

He continued: “So again, all of this overreach, again, disturbing, but it should be concerning to Republicans as well, because they are losing the middle of America when they go around, and again separate babies from their mothers, have masked men on the streets of college campuses, grabbing women and throwing them into unmarked cars. It’s not something that Americans are comfortable seeing, and that’s why, despite the underlying popularity of keeping the southern border safe and secure, Donald Trump right now is upside down in some polls on immigration.”

Watch the full segment in the video above.

The post ‘Morning Joe’ Says Masked ICE Agents at Gavin Newsom’s Redistricting Rally ‘Just Look Stupid’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

“Today was the first day of school in L.A., and if you’re wondering why school is starting on a random Thursday in the middle of August, the answer is simple: the state of California hates children,” Byer joked near the top of her Thursday monologue. “But school is important because it prepares kids for all the jobs that will someday be taken away from them by ChatGPT.”

Turning her attention to Swift’s announcement of her new album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” Byer rolled a clip of a Michigan news anchor who could only react this week to his co-host’s Swiftie fan theories with a bewildered, “Huh.” “That was the sound of a man’s soul leaving his body,” Byer remarked with a laugh. 

The “JKL” guest host additionally joked that the names for the different versions of Swift’s new album — which include the “It’s Frightening,” “It’s Rapturous” and “It’s Beautiful” editions — are “also things that have been said to me by my gynecologist.”

Before she wrapped up her final monologue of the week, Byer also highlighted a recent study that revealed only 33% of Americans currently feel like they can trust the federal government. “The study was conducted by the Institute of Our President Is a 34-Time Convicted Felon,” she explained. “Boom! Got him again.”

“Of course we have trust issues with our leaders!” Byer continued. “Back in 2016, we dated this awful guy for four years who cheated on us with a porn star and lied about literally everything. And then we immediately jumped into a relationship with a much, much, much older man who promised to take care of us and then kind of just, like, wandered off into the woods. So now we’re back with our terrible ex and he’s crazier than ever! And we just can’t stop fantasizing about that smokeshow we shacked up with in college who gave us healthcare.”

“Yes, we can!” she exclaimed, as she then looked at a shirtless photo of former President Barack Obama. “Oh my goodness. I got distracted there for a second.”

The post Nicole Byer Jokes School Now Prepares Kids for Jobs That Will Be Taken Away by ChatGPT | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

“We didn’t reach this point lightly,” Guild Chair Matt Hamilton said in a statement obtained by TheWrap. The guild said that 80% of its membership pledged to vote yes in its strike authorization vote. “But Guild members are doing more with less every day after several rounds of layoffs, while management continues to drag its feet in negotiations and insists on extreme positions that would roll back job protections. This supermajority of Guild journalists shows that we want a fair deal, and are ready to do what it takes to get one.”

Since contract negotiations began in September 2022, the guild has seen layoffs impact approximately 200 Times staffers. The strike authorization vote has not yet been scheduled.

The key issues at hand in the ongoing negotiations include wages, protections against layoffs and “guardrails to prevent Guild work from being outsourced to freelancers, temporary employees, newsroom management and third-party companies,” according to the union’s announcement.

The New York Times’ Katie Robertson first broke the news.

Last month, the L.A. Times Guild slammed management after the paper sent buyout offers to a small group of staffers, a move the union said “egregiously” violates employee contracts.

And this all follows a brutal year for the storied paper, which has been beset by a series of layoffs and buyouts amid incremental ideological shifts mandated by billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong.

In early May, 14 staffers were let go, with Carrillo Peñaloza, an assistant editor on the breaking news team, art director Susana Sanchez and investigative reporter Ben Poston among those impacted.

Prior to that in March, dozens of employees in operations and communications sections were let go, a culling that came shortly after 40 newsroom employees accepted buyouts. These cuts came after the paper lost at least 25,000 subscribers in the weeks after Soon-Shiong overrode the paper’s editorial board to spike a planned endorsement of Kamala Harris.

AdWeek reported in April that the L.A. Times lost “around $50 million” in 2024.

Read the L.A. Times Guild’s strike authorization memo in full below:

Journalists at the Los Angeles Times are poised to hold a strike vote, a historic first for the West Coast’s largest newspaper.

Eighty percent of the L.A. Times Guild, the union that represents Times journalists, have pledged to vote yes in a strike authorization vote, the Guild’s Unit Council announced Thursday. Such a vote would give Guild leadership and bargaining committee members the power to call a strike. 

“Our members produce the award-winning journalism that the Times relies on to bring in readers and revenue, yet management has taken us for granted for too long,” said assistant editor and Guild officer Hugo Martin (he/him), a 38-year Times veteran.

Times management and the newsroom union, a unit of Media Guild of the West (The NewsGuild-CWA Local 39213), have been bargaining over a new contract for nearly three years. Journalists at the newspaper have not received a cost-of-living increase for nearly four years — a period when inflation drove up the price of food, housing and other essentials. 

During negotiations, the Guild accused the company of trying to intimidate Guild members out of participating in collective bargaining or other union activities, an unfair labor practice under the National Labor Relations Act. 

In April, the National Labor Relations Board found merit to the Guild’s allegations and issued a complaint against the Times. A hearing will be held in September.  

The protracted negotiations, which began in September 2022, have also been marked by several rounds of layoffs and buyouts, resulting in the departure of roughly 200 union members. The Guild now counts just over 200 L.A. Times journalists in its ranks. 

“We didn’t reach this point lightly,” said reporter Matt Hamilton (he/him), chair of L.A. Times Guild. “But Guild members are doing more with less every day after several rounds of layoffs, while management continues to drag its feet in negotiations and insists on extreme positions that would roll back job protections. This supermajority of Guild journalists shows that we want a fair deal, and are ready to do what it takes to get one.”

Key issues left on the table include wages, layoff protections and guardrails to prevent Guild work from being outsourced to freelancers, temporary employees, newsroom management and third-party companies.

The post LA Times Union to Hold First-Ever Strike Authorization Vote as Contract Talks Near 3rd Year appeared first on TheWrap.

The Trump administration’s directive called for the Smithsonian to remove “improper ideology” from its museums. According to a letter sent Tuesday to Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III, the goal of this internal review is to ensure that the Smithsonian’s exhibits “celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”

The directive has provoked outrage from many historians and political pundits who have accused the Trump administration of trying to whitewash and rewrite history. Michaels, for her part, pushed back on that reaction during Wednesday night’s edition of CNN’s “NewsNight with Abby Phillip,” in which she argued, “[Trump’s] not whitewashing slavery.”

“He’s not,” Michaels insisted. “You cannot tie imperialism and racism and slavery just to one race, which is pretty much what every single [museum] exhibit does.”

Michaels received immediate pushback from her fellow panelists, who reminded her that they were discussing the Smithsonian’s exhibits covering American history. “Jillian, I’m surprised that you’re trying to litigate who was the beneficiary of slavery,” Phillip told Michaels. “In the context of American history, what are you saying is incorrect by saying that it was white people oppressing black people?”

“Every single thing is like, ‘Oh, no, no, no, this is all because white people bad,'” Michaels responded. “That’s just not the truth.” After the segment’s airing, viewers swiftly took to social media to blast Michaels for her comments. Viewers also questioned why CNN would even let Michaels appear on the program at all given that she is known for her fitness training not her historical or political prowess.

Michaels: You cannot tie imperialism and racism and slavery to just one race, which is pretty much what every single exhibit does… Only less than 2% of white Americans own slaves. You realize that slavery is thousands of years old?

Phillip: I’m very surprised you are trying to… pic.twitter.com/KOe9rSAcTV

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 14, 2025

“Truly humiliating stuff here from @JillianMichaels — and from @CNN for giving nonsense like this air time night after night as our democracy hangs in the balance,” wrote The Tennessee Holler on X, while another user asked, “Jillian Michaels is a personal trainer. Why the f—k is CNN putting her on TV to talk about politics?” 

Elsewhere, a different user similarly pondered, “Why is Jillian Michaels on a CNN panel talking about slavery[?] Cable news deserves whatever is coming for it.”

“Are the nonexistent ratings worth it?” another user questioned.

are the producers at @CNN proud to pump out this corrosive societal pollution every night? are the nonexistent ratings worth it? How do y’all sleep at night? https://t.co/cI87Oeue2J

— Peter Twinklage (@PeterTwinklage) August 14, 2025

On X, Michaels penned a lengthy post Wednesday night defending her comments with photos of a Smithsonian exhibit that places the blame for the instability in Latin American countries and the Caribbean in the 1990s on the “contradictions of U.S. foreign policy” at the time.

“This is one of the Smithsonian exhibits I was referencing,” Michaels wrote. “Trump is not trying to ‘erase slavery’ by suggesting some of the instillations there are inaccurate and bias.”

Ok… so for anyone watching me on @CNN tonight battling it out on Abby Phillip's show… this is one of the Smithsonian exhibits I was referencing. Trump is not trying to "erase slavery" by suggesting some of the instillations there are inaccurate and bias. Notice how it omits… pic.twitter.com/P0aLKZmIyV

— Jillian Michaels (@JillianMichaels) August 14, 2025

You can watch the full segment in the video above.

CNN declined TheWrap’s request for comment.

The post CNN Slammed for Booking Jillian Michaels as She Defends Trump ‘Whitewashing’ Slavery: ‘Are the Nonexistent Ratings Worth It?’ appeared first on TheWrap.

Trump’s picks included Sylvester Stallone, country music star George Strait, Gloria Gaynor, the members of Kiss and English actor and singer Michael Crawford. Byer, for her part, did not hesitate to mock the odd assemblage of performers. “Giving Kiss a Kennedy Center Honor is like giving Garth Brooks a BET Award,” she joked.

“The ceremony isn’t until December, but Trump’s already lined up a pretty amazing host,” Byer continued, before rolling a clip in which the president announced that he will be hosting this year’s KCH ceremony himself. In response to groans from the in-studio audience, Byer defended Trump’s decision to host and actually pushed for him to host more ceremonies in the future.

“You guys, I’m glad he’s hosting this,” she joked. “Let him host the Emmys, the Grammys, a podcast with Theo Von. He could be the host out of Applebee’s! Anything that distracts him from running this country into the ground!”

The “JKL” team did not stop mocking Trump’s first stint as Kennedy Center chairman there. Moments later, Byer teed up a fake ad for the institution’s honors in December, narrated by a Trump impressionist who promised that the ceremony will feature special appearances from, among other guests, “Skeletor, Kim Jong-un and [longtime Domino’s Pizza advertising figure] the Noid.”

“I’m hearing a lot of good and great things about the Noid,” the ad’s fake Trump explained. “Definitely not on the Epstein list, which doesn’t exist anymore, so stop talking about it.” The commercial ends with Trump announcing that the event will be held at Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk Rock N’ Roll Steakhouse in Nashville and broadcast live on CBS … “because I made them my bitch.”

You can watch Byer’s full ABC monologue in the video above.

The post Nicole Byer Endorses Trump’s Kennedy Center Honors Hosting Gig: ‘Anything That Distracts Him From Running This Country’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

The singer stopped by boyfriend Travis Kelce and his brother Jason’s podcast “New Heights” podcast on Wednesday for a rare in-depth interview, during which she recounted in detail the experience of reclaiming the rights to her music, and why it was so important to her.

“So to catch anyone up who doesn’t know about this saga, like I signed a record deal when I was 15, and I always kind of refer to it as I got my music back this summer. But I never owned my music at all,” Swift explained. “So traditionally, a lot of record deals are set up in a way artists don’t own what’s called their master recordings. Owning your master recordings means that you have complete control and power over distribution, licensing and essentially, the way your legacy is shaped. It’s a huge thing. It’s always been huge thing for me.”

The 14-time Grammy winner said she had been actively saving up since she was a teenager to buy the recordings back and recounted when her music was first sold that it “ripped” her heart out of her chest. In 2021, Swift set out to re-record her albums since it was the only way to own a piece of them. The “Taylor’s Version” of her albums became massive successes due to previously unreleased “Vault” tracks. However, the thought still prayed on her to get back her original recordings.

“I thought about not owning my music every day. It was like an intrusive thought that I had every day,” Swift said. “After the Eras tour, I had a meeting with my team, and we decided this might be a good time to approach the current owners of it. The owners of it was a private equity firm called Shamrock Capital. I knew them to be above board people.”

To make her pitch to Shamrock, she said she realized she needed a creative approach.

“It’s a huge decision for them to make, to sell that to anyone, including me. I decided that, rather than this be like a business conversation, I, I’m in the business of human emotion,” Swift explained. “I would so much rather lead heart first in something like this. Because for me, this is not, oh, I want to own this asset because of its returns, because of the dividends that I will receive over the years, this was because this is my handwritten diary entries from my whole life. These are the songs I wrote about every phase of my life. This is my photography, my music videos, my most of which I funded. You know, my artwork, everything that I’ve ever done is in this catalog.”

Instead of sending her lawyers or her management team, the singer decided to send her mom and brother. When they called her with the news that Shamrock had agreed to the sale, she could not hold back her tears of joy.

“It was a couple months after the Super Bowl. We’re in Kansas City, and I get a call from my mom, and she’s like, ‘You got your music,'” she said still visibly emotional about the memory. “And so sorry that this is, it’s literally been so long since this happened. It’s every time I talk about it, um, she’s like, You got, you got your music, and I just, like, very dramatically, hit the floor for real, like, honestly, just starting balling my eyes out.”

Swift, through tears, explained she quickly ran to Travis, who was playing video games at the time, screaming so much he thought something was wrong. When she told him, she recalled collapsing in his arms while he cried with tears of joy as well.

“This changed my life,” she said. “I can’t believe it still, every time I think about it, it’s like I have to tell the short version to everyone, because it is still like this. This will affect the rest of my life, as I think about this every day now. But instead of it being like an intrusive thought that hurts me, it’s I can’t believe this happened. Like, how lucky am I? How grateful am I? I’m so grateful.”

You can listen to Swift’s full “New Heights” episode in the video above.

The post Taylor Swift Cries on Travis Kelce’s Podcast Retelling Saga of Buying Her Masters: ‘I Can’t Believe It Still’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.