Taylor Swift became obsessed with Dame Elizabeth Taylor after she was compared to actress by the late movie legend's son.
The pop star has revealed she felt "so flattered" when Taylor's son Chris Wilding compared the two women and called himself a "Swifty" - and it inspired her to write a song about the Cleopatra legend.
In a video posted on TikTok, Taylor explained: "My parents sent me this clip of Elizabeth Taylor’s son saying something very flattering, that if there were one person he might compare to his mother in the modern day, in terms of persona and … the chaos around us, he said it would be me.
"I was so flattered by that."
Taylor revealed she started bouncing ideas off her fiance Travic Kelce as she was working on lyrics for the track, which features on her new album The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer added: "I just immediately started talking to Travis about it. I was going on and on about Elizabeth Taylor, talking about all the things about her that I loved … how she kept challenging herself late into her life.
"I had to get out of the car, I was like: 'One sec, I have to get out of the car for a second,' and I just sang this melody into my phone, got back in the car and …that’s what it’s like when it happens."
Wilding - whose father was the actress' second husband Michael Wilding - compared his mother to Taylor Swift in a 2024 interview with the Guardian newspaper.
He told the publication: "I can’t tell you how much I admire Taylor Swift. I’m now a Swifty. [Her Instagram post] at the end of that presidential debate was so f****** great. Huge props to her. That reminds me a little bit of the same spirit my mom had."
Wilding added of his mother: "There were crowds wherever she went; always a gaggle of photographers following, people gawping ...
"[She became famous] because she was extraordinarily beautiful. I think her beauty mostly helped ensure she had constant, steady work, but I think it hindered her too, in that she wasn’t taken seriously as an actress, or as seriously as she deserved to be, because she was so beautiful.
"People figured she got the work just because she was beautiful, rather than being a good actress."
