A Theory Is Circulating Online That Kanye West's VMA Outburst Saved Taylor Swift

Perhaps the most famous moment in VMA history came in 2009 when Kanye West took to the stage, interrupting Taylor Swift , to say that Beyoncé should have won the award for Best Female Video for "Single Ladies." At the time, the clip was seen as evidence that Kanye was becoming increasingly erratic.

Decades later, some on TikTok are suggesting that Kanye's motivation was actually something else entirely. Let's dive into that theory and see whether it has any merit.

Did Kanye West save Taylor Swift from Diddy?

The theory suggests that, by interrupting Taylor and more importantly, by driving a rift between Taylor and Beyoncé, Kanye was actually saving Taylor from getting involved with Diddy. The theory suggests that Diddy liked to prey upon young, up-and-coming artists and that Beyoncé and Jay-Z were directly involved in finding such young girls (which there is no real evidence of).

So, by interrupting Taylor, Kanye drove a wedge between Beyoncé and Taylor that ultimately kept her from falling into Diddy's arms.

There have been many attempts to connect Beyoncé and Jay-Z to Taylor Swift, including recent spamming of her Instagram comments to prove the connection. The notion that Kanye was trying to protect Taylor, though, is a stretch no matter how you look at it.

If Kanye really believed something sinister was going on, he could have taken it to the police or to Taylor personally, warning her to be on the lookout. Instead, he humiliated her publicly in a way that left lasting scars.

Kanye may have had the best intentions in storming the stage in 2009, but it's likely that all he was really trying to do in that moment was let everyone know who he thought should have won the award.

Kanye and Taylor have not had a smooth relationship since.

Some have gone even further down the rabbit hole of this theory, suggesting that Kanye's music video for "Famous" was an attempt to make it clear that he was trying to save Taylor. In the video, he's seen sleeping in a massive bed that also includes a Taylor Swift look-a-like. According to the theory, this bed is meant to resemble Diddy's beds from his "freak offs," and adding Taylor was a suggestion that he had saved her.

Of course, "Famous" is also the song that led to a pretty significant feud between Taylor and Kanye over whether he was allowed to use the line "I made that b---h famous" with reference to Taylor.

That feud was another turning point in Taylor's career, and it cemented the bad blood between Kanye, then-wife Kim Kardashian, and Taylor Swift.

While it's nice to think that Kanye was trying to save Taylor from something during his outburst, that's unlikely. It's not impossible, but if you had to name all the reasons why Kanye stormed the stage at the 2009 VMAs, keeping Taylor Swift out of a dangerous sex ring seems fairly low on the list.