Ever since she shot to fame as the winner of American Idol, Carrie Underwood has been one of the most recognizable and beloved stars in country music. But fame brings attention, and while that might help to make a new single shoot to the top of the Billboard charts, it also means that there's a lot of eyes on any alleged wrongdoing or awkward moments. While the star has done her best to stay on the straight and narrow, even Underwood isn't immune to the occasional shady moment — or even shady rumor. Here's the shady side of Carrie Underwood.
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00:00Carrie Underwood is one of the most beloved country stars in the game and has mostly managed
00:05to stay away from controversy. But it turns out even she isn't immune to the occasional
00:10shady moment. Here are some sketchy things you may not know about Carrie Underwood.
00:16Underwood and Brad Paisley teamed up to co-host the CMA Awards year after year from 2008 until
00:222018, and there were times their quips ruffled feathers. In 2017, the duo took aim at the
00:29then-president when they mocked Donald Trump's infamous Twitter behavior with a parody of
00:34Underwood's hit, Before He Cheats. Transforming it into Before He Tweets, the song was about
00:39Trump's often-bizarre social media ramblings. It's safe to say social media had a lot to
00:44say about the bit.
00:46In 2012, Underwood and Paisley fired off a joke that didn't exactly land for Taylor Swift.
00:56Paisley said,
00:57The greatest trait of the year had to be the Kennedy family, who somehow traded Arnold
01:01Schwarzenegger for Taylor Swift. After Underwood informed her co-host that Swift was no longer
01:06dating Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s son, the duo kicked off a We Are Never Ever Getting Back
01:11Together reference. When Swift was asked about the joke and why the camera didn't cut to
01:16her in the audience, she told The New York Times Magazine,
01:19They don't pan to you if you're not laughing. Yikes.
01:23Underwood had some choice words about former boyfriend Tony Romo following their split
01:27in 2007. The star opened up about the athlete in an interview with Allure, where she said
01:33the former professional football player, who was her date to the 2007 ACM Awards, supposedly
01:39still tried to call her following their breakup. She revealed,
01:42The phone will ring and it'll be him and I'll maybe not answer. We were both small-town
01:47people doing very big things, and we relied on each other dealing with fame.
01:52Underwood's remarks raised some eyebrows, since Romo was dating Jessica Simpson at the
01:56time. Simpson hit back at Underwood's claims during an interview with The Woody & Jim Show
02:01shortly after. She said,
02:03Tony and I both laughed at that. Yeah, we got a chuckle out of it.
02:07Simpson went on to say that Romo definitely didn't still call Underwood. She added,
02:12If Tony wanted to call her or be with her, he would.
02:15But that wasn't the only shady remark Underwood made about Romo. She also insinuated that
02:20the football star wasn't the best boyfriend when asked if her 2009 single, Cowboy Casanova,
02:25was about him. But if anyone assumed the title was a reference to the team Romo played on
02:30for 14 seasons, Underwood insisted,
02:33That's not the case. She told Esquire in 2009,
02:36I would never immortalize a guy that did me wrong. I would never give him that much credit.
02:42Underwood may have hit former Gossip Girl actor Leighton Meester with some tough love
02:46in 2010, if reports are to be believed, that is. According to Us Weekly, when the two crossed
02:52paths at the CMA Awards, they supposedly didn't have the friendliest exchange.
02:57In 2010, Meester was a presenter at The Awards Show, and Underwood co-hosted with Brad Paisley.
03:02Meester was said to have been on edge at the event, since she was trying to carve out a
03:06country music career for herself at the time and had just starred in the movie Country
03:11Strong.
03:12Just before hitting the stage, a source claimed Underwood supposedly told Meester,
03:16Get out there and don't f----- up.
03:18Apparently, this made Leighton even more nervous than she already was. The insider added,
03:24Later, someone said to Carrie, that was mean. And Carrie said,
03:27She'll get over it. Someone said that to me once, and I got over it.
03:31If the rumor mill is to be believed, Underwood may not see eye-to-eye with Leigh-Anne Rimes,
03:36and it may or may not have something to do with Rimes' reaction to Underwood taking home
03:41Best Female Vocalist at the CMAs in 2006.
03:45In a since-deleted essay that went up on her website, Rimes wrote,
03:49We all work very hard, and have for many years, so to see someone come in and win Female Vocalist
03:54that has been here for a very short time is a little disheartening.
03:58I might pick a song by Carrie Underwood.
04:02In 2014, Starr claimed tensions supposedly boiled over between the two when they both
04:07attended the taping of CMA Country Christmas in November. According to a source, Underwood
04:12found out that her dressing room was near Rimes' and supposedly asked the organizers
04:16to get her room switched. As for why? A source claimed,
04:20Carrie can't stand Leigh-Anne. She thinks Leigh-Anne is desperate, unoriginal, and a
04:24has-been. Despite the rumors, the two have been spotted together on at least two occasions
04:29where they looked pretty happy to be in each other's company. So, what's really going on
04:33between these two is anyone's guess.
04:37Is there drama between Underwood and Taylor Swift? The two made headlines for an alleged
04:41feud in 2013 when Us Weekly claimed that they weren't on good terms, so much so that they
04:46supposedly asked to be seated away from each other at the Grammy Awards that year. A source
04:51claimed they hate each other and said,
04:54Taylor feels Carrie is always rude to her, so she steers clear of her. However, it's
04:58worth noting a rep for the Grammys told the outlet that no requests were received from
05:03either artist.
05:04In a 2013 interview with Allure, Underwood suggested she and Swift didn't really have
05:09a relationship whatsoever. She said,
05:11"...I'm not close to her. We run into each other at events. We're never in the same place
05:16at the same time."
05:17She also downplayed the reports of drama in a CBS This Morning interview with Gayle King
05:21that same year. When asked if there was a feud, she said,
05:25"...No. Not that I know of, at least. In every magazine, in pretty much every newspaper or
05:30on gossip TV shows, they can just get away with it by saying a source said or an insider
05:35said. I've read the most ridiculous things about myself when people do that."
05:39I feel like women are the backbone of country music."