The rapper famously interrupted Swift’s acceptance speech to proclaim Beyoncé should have won Best Female Video in 2009.

Amber Rose says she might have incited Ye to crash Taylor Swift’s VMAs speech but ‘was not expecting that’

The rapper famously interrupted Swift's acceptance speech to proclaim Beyoncé should have won Best Female Video in 2009.

By Kathleen Perricone

May 6, 2026 8:14 p.m. ET

Kanye West and Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Credit:

Christopher Polk/Getty

- Amber Rose said she may have inadvertently incited Ye to crash Taylor Swift's VMAs speech in 2009.

- Rose and Ye were dating at the time and were seen drinking from a bottle of Hennessy prior to the start of the show.

- "I'm just sitting there and then he's on stage and I'm like, 'Oh s---t,'" Rose recalled of the famous moment.

Blame it on the Henny… but also, Amber Rose.

The model just confessed her role in pop culture history, the night Kanye West, now known as Ye, crashed Taylor Swift's acceptance speech after winning Best Female Video at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.

"It's partially my fault," she revealed on the latest episode of *Ball in the Family Podcast*.

In the hours leading up to the shocking stunt, the rapper and his then-girlfriend were seen taking swigs from a bottle of Hennessy they had brought with them to Radio City Music Hall in NYC.

Kanye West and Amber Rose on the VMAs red carpet with a bottle of Hennessy in 2009.

Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage

According to Rose, it was her idea to grab the cognac at the last minute as they headed out to the awards ceremony.

"I'm like, 'Babe, you got that bottle of Hennessy upstairs, like, you a superstar. You need to get the Henny… We need to be, you know, just taking shots of Henny on the carpet," recalled Rose to podcast cohosts LiAngelo Ball, Anthony Salazar, and Darren Moore. "I'm hyping him up. He like, 'Yeah, yeah, let me go get the Henny.'"

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At the VMAs, not only did Ye pose for photos on the red carpet with the bottle of booze, he continually sipped from it — and even encouraged other celebrities, like Kid Cudi and Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz, to take shots with him.

"And it kind of backfired," Rose now admitted.

Kanye West and Amber Rose enjoy some Henny at the 2009 VMAs.

Christopher Polk/Getty

The show was still in Act One when the award for Best Female Video was given to Swift for "You Belong With Me." Ye, unhappy that she beat out Beyoncé’s "Single Ladies," jumped up from his front-row seat and stormed the stage.

"Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you," he said, taking the microphone from the 19-year-old singer. "I'mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time!"

Rose barely had time to react.

"I'm just sitting there and then he's on stage and I’m like, 'Oh s---t,'" she recalled. "I was not expecting that… Do I agree with how he did it? No. But was he right? Yes."

Ye and Rose split the following year. He and Swift made amends, only to very publicly fall out again in 2016 after he rapped "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex" in the song "Famous." Subsequently, Ye's then-girlfriend Kim Kardashian leaked audio of his phone call with Swift seemingly approving the lyric.

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The double betrayal inspired Swift's 2018 album, *Reputation* — which got heavy rotation in the Rose household thanks to her son Sebastian, a diehard Swiftie.

"She sent us a big box of all her merch and got us tickets to the concert," Rose said on *Ball in the Family*. "Very nice. She understood that it wasn't me."

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