Katy Perry Says She and Taylor Swift Wanted to Set an Example for Younger Fans by Ending Feud

Katy Perry and Taylor Swift had their fans in mind when they reconciled earlier this year.

On the Wednesday episode of the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Perry, 34, explained that the pop stars’ years-long rocky relationship was “just a misunderstanding,” but they decided to finally put the feud to rest in order to set an example for their younger fans.

“It was actually just a misunderstanding but we have such big groups of people that like to follow us, and so they kind of started turning against each other a little bit too,” the singer explained.

Perry continued: “It was really unfortunate, but we made amends. And I’m all about redemption and forgiveness and for setting an example for those younger people that it can be cool to ask for forgiveness and confront someone that you may have an issue with or a problem with and talk it out.”

Swift, 29, and Perry publicly ended their feud when they costarred in Swift’s music video for “You Need to Calm Down” in June. In the clip, the reunited pair wore matching burger and French fry costumes.

Perry explained that the path to their reconciliation began when she “sent a literal olive branch” to Swift’s Reputation tour.

“Then we started seeing each other out and about and I just would walk up to her and say, ‘Hey, how are you?’ ” the musician continued. “It’s like, we have so much in common — there’s probably only 10 people in the world that have the same things in common — I was like, ‘We should really be friends over that and share our strengths and our weaknesses and our challenges. We can help each other get through a lot.’ Because it’s not as easy as it seems sometimes.”

Host Ellen DeGeneres agreed, saying, “Y’all do have a lot in common and you also both have very young fans and, like you said, it’s really important to set an example to say it’s ridiculous to hold on to things like that.”

“Yeah, you need to bury that,” Perry said.

In a recent interview on U.K. radio show Capital Breakfast, the “Never Really Over” singer also said that she’d be “open” to a musical collaboration between her and Swift, calling the pop star “really intelligent.”

Swift shared a similar sentiment about her reconciliation with Perry in June, telling BBC Radio 1 that she and her fellow pop star had “grown past allowing ourselves to be pitted against each other.”

“We saw each other at a party and walked up to each other and hugged it out and talked about things. Then saw each other again and hung out at another party,” Swift told Capital Breakfast. “It was just like something felt so much lighter about my life when things became really good between us.”

The singer also revealed that she and Perry have been on good terms for a while but wanted to make sure they were “solid” before announcing their reconciliation to fans.

“You know, she and I have been fine for a while and really on good terms but we didn’t know if we were ever gonna really tell people about it. We wanted to make sure that was solid between us before we ever made the public aware,” Swift said.