Selena Gomez Makes Bold Reference to Taylor Swift at Emmys

Selena Gomez took the stage at the beginning of the 2024 Emmy Awards to present an award with her Only Murders in the Building co-stars Martin Short and Steve Martin , looking stunning in a sleek black dress with a sparkling halter neckline.

During the skit before announcing the winner, Gomez and the others joked around, but it was one comment from the actress that had fans thinking of her close friend, Taylor Swift .

After a laugh, she joked about Martin and Short, saying "Let me say, what an honor it is to work with two guys who are this far away from being childless cat ladies."

Fans of Gomez and Swift immediately connected the dots, taking to social media to exclaim, "TAYLENA"—a nickname fans have for the two women's friendship—with one saying, "Taylena best friendship ❤️."

"MOTHERS," said a few others in response to Gomez's sly reference.

Swift referred to herself as a "Childless Cat Lady" this past week when she gave her public endorsement of Kamala Harris as president in the 2024 election, pairing her strong message with a photo of herself holding her cat Benjamin Button, one of her three feline pets.

The comment was in reference to Donald Trump 's vice presidential candidate JD Vance , who criticized Harris and other politicians in a 2021 interview as "a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too."

Many people, especially women, took issue with the comments , which Vance attempted to walk back after the criticism. It's unclear if Gomez's comment at the Emmy Awards was a direct reference to the original controversy, Swift's post, or both, but Swifties loved it regardless.

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