celebrity

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West could go to jail over Taylor Swift.

It’s the celebrity scandal the world can’t stop talking about: Kim Kardashian releasing secret recordings, ‘proving’ that Taylor Swift approved the controversial lyrics in Kanye West’s hit, Famous.

Taylor Swift was quick to respond to the drama, accusing the famous couple of “character assassination”.

Video by SnapChat/KimKardashian

“Of course I wanted to like the song. I wanted to believe Kanye when he told me I would love the song. I wanted us to have a friendly relationship,” she wrote on social media.

“He promised to play the song for me, but he never did…Being falsely painted as a liar when I was never given the full story or played any part of the song is character assassination.”

That moment when Kanye West secretly records your phone call, then Kim posts it on the Internet.

A photo posted by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on Jul 17, 2016 at 9:14pm PDT

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Now, legal experts say that Swift could very well have grounds to sue the famous couple. You see, in California – where the phone call and subsequent recordings were presumably made – it’s illegal to tape calls without permission from both sides of the party.

That means that Kimye could face serious repercussions for filming and releasing the footage without Taylor’s permission. It could even see them sent to prison for up to three years.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West at the 2016 Met Gala.
Could Kim and Kanye be headed to prison? Image: Getty
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Last month, The Sun claimed that Taylor Swift knew about the recording, with her lawyers demanding it be destroyed so it couldn't be released to the public.

According to TMZ, a letter from Swift's laywers that was sent to Kanye reads in part, “demand is hereby made that you immediately destroy all such recordings, provide us of assurance that this has been done, and also assurance that these recordings have not been previously disseminated."

Kanye and Taylor in happier times. Source: Getty Images.
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Of course, the question remains whether any conversation that's had with stars like the Kardashians - whose every move is documented by cameras for their long-running reality TV show - could ever be presumed to be private.

If Taylor and her team did decide to pursue legal action, this is one legal loophole that Kim and Kanye's people could try and argue. Then again, celebrity or not, it's pretty reasonable to assume that when someone calls you for a chat, that conversation will be kept private, right?