22 hours ago
6
Taylor Swift has been granted a temporary restraining order against an alleged stalker who reportedly visited her home and claimed he shared a child with her.
Brian Jason Wagner, 45, from Colorado, allegedly travelled to Swift’s home in Los Angeles numerous times, beginning in July 2024 and continuing to May.
Swift said in a court filing that during each of these visits, “I am informed that Mr Wagner made various statements about living at my property (not true), being in a relationship with me (not true), believing I am the mother of his son (not true), and needing to see me in person, all of which are untrue and disconnected from reality”.
On one occasion he is alleged to have held a glass bottle which, Swift said, “could have been used as a weapon”. Swift said the visits made her “fear for my safety and the safety of my family”.
Wagner must stay at least 100 yards away from Swift. A more permanent order will potentially be put in place after a hearing on 30 June.
Swift has faced numerous stalkers over the years. In 2017, 29-year-old Mohammed Jaffar was sent to a psychiatric facility in New York after he made dozens of calls to Swift’s management company and then entered her Tribeca apartment building. In 2018, Roger Alvarado broke into Swift’s home, used her shower and slept in her bed – he was jailed for nine months, then sentenced to a longer term after another break-in. The same year Julius Sandrock was arrested after travelling more than 1,000 miles to Swift’s home with ammunition, a knife, rope and gloves found in his car.
Six other people were convicted of stalking Swift in the following years, including an incident in 2020 in which a man crashed his car into her apartment building and attempted to gain entry.
Last week, Swift announced that she had bought back the master recordings of her first six albums. In 2019, those masters had been sold by her first record label Big Machine to music manager Scooter Braun, who had in turn sold them to a private equity firm. Swift retaliated with a project to re-record the albums, generating huge sales with each release.
Terms of the new deal are undisclosed. Announcing it, Swift said: “All I’ve ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to be able to one day purchase my music outright with no strings attached, no partnership, with full autonomy.”
