The 2009 Video Music Awards will have a permanent place in pop culture history as the time Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift's acceptance speech in order to shower praise on Beyoncé.
While it seemed that everyone had since moved on from the incident, Swift and West reignited their beef in 2016, when the rapper's pseudo-diss track "Famous" dropped and it was revealed that the songstress allegedly lied about not approving the lyrics. It's clear that the fallout from the VMAs still weighs heavily on West and Swift, but what about the Lemonade mogul? While I doubt we'll ever hear the notoriously tight-lipped star's side of the story, we now know how Bey felt directly after West stormed the stage.
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Former MTV chief Van Toffler had the inside scoop on all-things VMAs in 2009, and now he's spilling tea. Van Toffler revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that he was backstage minutes after Swift had received the Best Female Video award for "You Belong With Me," which beat out Bey's video for "Single Ladies." It was also moments after West took the stage to tell Swift that she didn't deserve the trophy — and that his pal Beyoncé, who would go on to win Video Of The Year — did. According to the one-time MTV chief, the situation left both women upset. He told THR:
"When Kanye walked up onstage with Taylor [Swift] that year, it turned out that Taylor had to go onstage to do her song five minutes later. I ran out of the truck to see that everything was all right, and Taylor and her mom were crying hysterically," revealed Van Toffler. "I'm not always wonderful with emotions. I didn't know what to say. Then I went backstage, and Beyoncé was crying, too."
Bey and Swift pulled it together, however, and enjoyed the rest of their VMAs. Bey even graciously brought Swift on stage to finish her acceptance speech, giving her an opportunity to thank the fans.
Alas, eight long years after that fateful night, it seems that the legend of the 2009 VMAs still lives on.