Toni Braxton reacts to Kayla Nicole’s Halloween costume after she was accused of dissing Taylor Swift.
“I’d like to think she just did it for Halloween in honor of me,” the Grammy winner told “Entertainment Tonight” in an interview published Friday.
Nicole, who dated Travis Kelsey from 2017 to 2022, was accused of dissing Swift last month when she recreated Braxton’s glamorous look and music video for her 2000 song “He Wasn’t Man Enough.”
The 34-year-old internet personality posted a video of herself lip-syncing and dancing to the lyrics on Instagram.
“Did you know about us back then?/Do you know that I left your husband, your girlfriend? I don’t care about him/But you married him/Did you know that I made him leave?/Did you know that he begged to be with me?/He wasn’t man enough for me,” the song’s lyrics state.
At the time, fans claimed that Nicole was subtly sending a message to Swift, 35, after she was accused of mentioning the Pregame podcast host on her album The Life of a Showgirl.
When an ET interviewer told Braxton, 58, about Swift and Nicole’s rumored drama, she laughed and replied, “Oh, that’s bittersweet.”
However, Nicole later revealed that her tribute to Braxton was inspired by a childhood memory during an episode of her podcast.
“I had a best friend who was white. Her name was Taylor,” she explained earlier this month. “And my mom didn’t play games or anything, so she was the only house I could go to as a kid.”
“I specifically remember riding home with Taylor from private school in the back of a rice truck in uniform and her mother playing this song,” Nicole said.
The podcaster said he had a “aha moment” when he realized that “white people listen to black music, too.”
Nicole later denied that she was “putting other women down” with her outfit, saying she just wanted to “celebrate” Braxton.
“Halloween is an opportunity for me to not be myself and dress up as someone I admire, someone I’m a fan of, someone I think is a chef’s kiss,” she said on the Nov. 8 podcast.
“You guys don’t want celebrities to dress up as…celebrities, but I’m confused because what should I do?” she asked. “Doctor? Superwoman?”
Nicole subtly referenced her past relationship with Kelsey on her podcast, previously talking about their dog and telling her critics to “move on.”
