War of words... Why are Taylor Swift and Kanye West still arguing?

The videos show West apparently on the phone to Swift discussing his song Famous, in which he rapped: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex, Why? I made that b***h famous.”

West was criticised for the lyric after he first played the song at his Yeezy Season 3 fashion show but he insisted Swift had given her blessing.

Swift denied she had ever heard it.

The lyric is a reference to the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, when West interrupted Swift on stage as she collected a gong to say Beyonce was the rightful winner. The incident received wide news coverage, with even President Barack Obama dubbing West a “jackass”.

West’s wife waded into the long-running feud in the early hours of Monday when she wrote on Twitter: “Do u guys follow me on snap chat? u really should ;-)”

She then posted a string of videos of a phone conversation between West and Swift on Snapchat in which West says that he is working on a song and wants to use the lyric: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex.”

In the call Swift expresses concern that she is close to overexposure but West replied that his song would be good exposure for her.

In the end she appears to give her blessing, saying: “It’s like a compliment. I really appreciate you telling me about it, that’s really nice.”

Swift also acknowledges that it is a “tongue-in-cheek” line.

In a statement after West released the song, a spokeswoman for Swift said: “Kanye did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his single Famous on her Twitter account. ... She declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message. Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyric.”

Swift now denies she lied about giving approval to West for the song, saying the recordings proved she never approved the slur he used in the song.

She wrote on Instagram: “Where is the video of Kanye telling me he was going to call me ‘that b***h’ in his song? It doesn’t exist because it never happened. You don’t get to control someone’s emotional response to being called ‘that b***h’ in front of the entire world.

“Of course I wanted to like the song. I wanted to believe Kanye when he told me that I would love the song. I wanted us to have a friendly relationship.

“He promised to play the song for me, but he never did. While I wanted to be supportive of Kanye on the phone call, you cannot ‘approve’ a song you haven’t heard. Being falsely painted as a liar when I was never given the full story or played any part of the song is character assassination.

“I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative, one that I have never asked to be a part of, since 2009.”

Earlier this year Swift seemed to respond to the release of Famous when she accepted a Grammy award for album of the year, saying: “There will be people along the way that will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame.”

Here is a timeline of the rift that won’t end...

• September 13 2009. Taylor Swift and Kanye West both attend the MTV Video Music Awards in New York, where Swift wins the Best Female Video award for You Belong With Me.

During her speech, West jumps on stage and grabs the microphone out of her hand, saying: “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you and I’mma let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time.”

West’s intervention was not well received, an apparently horrified Beyonce invited Swift back on stage with her later in the night to finish her speech and even US president Barack Obama weighed in - dubbing West “a jackass”.

• September 15 2009. West makes a tearful appearance on The Jay Leno Show, saying: “It was rude, period. I don’t try to justify it, ‘cause I was in the wrong.

“Dealing with the fact that I hurt someone or took anything away, you know, from a talented artist - or from anyone - because I only wanted to help people.

“My entire life, I’ve only wanted to do and give something that I felt was right and I immediately knew in this situation that it was wrong.”

Meanwhile Swift appears on chat show The View to confirm West has not been in touch to apologise. This prompts him to call her, with Swift saying: “He was very sincere in his apology, and I accepted that apology.”

• September 4 2010: West apologises publicly to Swift on Twitter, writing: “I’m sorry, Taylor. We’re both artists, and the media and managers are trying to get between us.

“She deserves the apology more than anyone.”

• September 12 2010. Swift is back at the VMAs with a barefoot performance of her new song Innocent, which includes the lines: “Who you are is not what you did / You’re still an innocent.” Most critics interpret the song as being about West, with The New York Times calling the song “an extremely savvy insult masquerading as the high road”.

• November 24 2010. At a surprise performance of his new album at Bowery Ballroom in New York, West seems to suggest that Swift used the controversy to bolster her own fame. He reportedly rants: “Taylor never came to my defence at any interview and rode the waves and rode it and rode it.”

• May 3 2011. Swift and West both attend the Met Costume Institute Gala and perform a casual “low five”.

• June 11 2013. West tells The New York Times that he only apologised in the first place because he’d caved in to peer pressure, adding: “I don’t have one regret.”

• August 30 2015. At the 2015 VMA Swift presents West with the Video Vanguard Award and they embrace on stage.

In his speech he says: “I think about it sometimes, it crosses my mind a little bit when I go to a baseball game and 60,000 people boo me. It crosses my mind a little bit. I think if I had to do it all again what would I have done?

“Would I have worn a leather shirt, would I have drunk half a bottle of Hennessy and given the other half to the audience? If I had a daughter, would I have gone on stage and grabbed the mic from someone else’s?”

• February 11 2016. West releases his new track Famous, with the lyrics: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex, Why? I made that b***h famous.”

West is criticised for the lyric after he first plays the song at his Yeezy Season 3 fashion show but insists Swift has given her blessing. Swift denies she has ever heard it.

Swift’s brother Austin later posts a video of him throwing his Yeezy trainers in the bin.

• February 15 2016. Swift becomes the first woman to win Album of the Year twice at the Grammy Awards - and appears to use the stage to take a jab at West.

She said: “As the first woman to win Album of the Year at the Grammys twice, I want to say to all the young women out there - there are going to be people along the way who are going to try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame.

“But if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you’re going, you’ll look around and you will know that it was you and the people who love you who put you there. And that will be the greatest feeling in the world.”

• June 16 2016. Kim Kardashian enters the fray in a GQ interview, backing up West’s claim that Swift gave her blessing to the lyrics.

She says: “She totally approved that. She wanted to all of a sudden act like she didn’t. I swear, my husband gets so much s**t for things [when] he really was doing proper protocol and even called to get it approved.”

Kardashian also claims the phone conversation was recorded, adding: “And then they sent an attorney’s letter like ‘Don’t you dare do anything with that footage’, and asking us to destroy it.”

• June 25 2016. West releases the video for Famous, which shows waxworks of West, Kardashian and Swift all asleep in a bed in various states of undress alongside Rihanna, her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown, Donald Trump, Caitlyn Jenner, George W Bush, Anna Wintour, West’s ex Amber Rose, Kardashian’s ex Ray J and Bill Cosby.

• Kardashian posts the videos of West speaking to Swift on the phone on Snapchat. Swift is accused of lying about their agreement before she responds on Instagram with a post captioned: “That moment when Kanye West secretly records your phone call, then Kim posts it on the internet.”

Her statement says: “Where is the video of Kanye telling me he was going to call me ‘that b***h’ in his song? It doesn’t exist because it never happened. You don’t get to control someone’s emotional response to being called ‘that b***h’ in front of the entire world.

“Of course I wanted to like the song. I wanted to believe Kanye when he told me that I would love the song. I wanted us to have a friendly relationship.

“He promised to play the song for me, but he never did. While I wanted to be supportive of Kanye on the phone call, you cannot ‘approve’ a song you haven’t heard. Being falsely painted as a liar when I was never given the full story or played any part of the song is character assassination.

“I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative, one that I have never asked to be a part of, since 2009.”