Golden Globe winner Teyana Taylor opens up about standing by longtime friend Kanye West — without agreeing with everything he does.
Fresh off a Golden Globe win, Teyana Taylor reflects on fame, forgiveness and why loyalty doesn’t require full agreement.
Teyana Taylor is having a moment — and she knows exactly how hard she worked to get here. After winning her first Golden Globe for One Battle After Another, the actress is being celebrated not just for her performance, but for the steady, self-directed path that brought her to Hollywood’s center stage.
As awards buzz builds around her role as Perfidia Beverly Hills, Taylor is also speaking candidly about one of the most talked-about relationships of her career: her long-standing friendship with Kanye West.
The two go back more than a decade. West helped introduce Taylor to a wider audience early in her music career, featuring her on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and spotlighting her unforgettable dance performance in the 2016 video for “Fade.”
The clip became a viral moment and cemented Taylor as a creative force — even when her own music struggled to receive the same industry push.
In 2020, Taylor stepped away from music altogether, publicly sharing her frustration about feeling overlooked and under-supported.
While West’s G.O.O.D. Music label released one of her albums that year, Taylor has made it clear she doesn’t blame him for how things turned out.
Instead, she describes their bond as family-like — honest, direct and built on years of shared history.
“I don’t have to agree with everything he does or says,” Taylor said in a recent interview. “But I’m not going to abandon him.”
Her stance comes amid West’s highly publicized controversies, including his failed presidential run and inflammatory public statements that cost him major business partnerships.
Taylor doesn’t excuse those actions, but she separates disagreement from disloyalty.
She explains it simply: she treats West the same way she would her own brothers — offering truth when asked and staying out of public judgment.
“If he asks me something, he knows he’s going to get a real answer,” she said.
Now firmly focused on acting, Taylor’s career has taken on new life. From A Thousand and One to White Men Can’t Jump, Coming 2 America and recent TV roles, she has steadily built a résumé that led to her Golden Globe win — and possible Oscar attention.
Through it all, Taylor says her philosophy hasn’t changed. She works quietly, handles her business and keeps moving forward.
“I do my stuff behind the scenes,” she said. “I’m in my business and I drink my water.”
For Taylor, success isn’t about noise or approval. It’s about growth, honesty — and staying true to who you are, even when the spotlight gets complicated.
