Former KU swimmer on hand for her best friend Taylor Swift’s wedding celebration
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Anderson was photographed heading to Madison Square Garden for a rehearsal dinner.
- Anderson swam butterfly and backstroke for Kansas and scored 77 points at 2011 Big 12s.
- Anderson and Swift have remained friends for more than 20 years since high school.
Taylor Swift’s affection for the University of Kansas is well-known. In part of a 2024 YouTube short that showed glimpses of her life with Travis Kelce, she wore a vintage-style KU sweatshirt.
It’s unlikely anyone at her wedding celebration inside Madison Square Garden on Friday will be wearing KU gear — but one guest (possible participant?) has worn a lot of Jayhawks crimson and blue.
Swift’s childhood bestie, Abigail Anderson, was photographed Thursday along with other guests — including Swift’s publicist, Tree Paine — leaving the Ritz Carlton NYC and heading to Madison Square Garden for what was described as a rehearsal dinner.
Anderson was tagged as one of the best-dressed guests, wearing a yellow silk slip dress from one of Swift’s favorite fashion labels, Reformation.
Some Swifties assume that Anderson will be, or maybe already has been, Swift’s maid or matron or honor.
It was Anderson who over the years has been referenced in Swift songs, and who brought Swift to Lawrence, Kansas in 2009, creating a story that’s now part of Jayhawk lore.
The two women met on the first day of their freshman year at Hendersonville High School in Tennessee, sitting next to each other in English class, according to what Swift told Oprah Winfrey in a 2009 interview.
Swift mentioned that high school friendship in the song “Fifteen” from her 2008 album, “Fearless,” singing: “You sit in class next to a redhead named Abigail. And soon enough you’re best friends. Laughing at the other girls. Who think they’re so cool. We’ll be out of here as soon as we can.”
Anderson was a letter-winning swimmer, the best on campus, in all four years in high school, then continued to swim competitively at KU.
Swift told Winfrey in that 2009 interview that she and Anderson at the time were both living their dreams. Anderson enrolled at KU in 2008 as a communications major.
“She wanted to be a swimmer and go off on a college scholarship for swimming and I wanted to be a singer,” Swift said. “Now she’s off at Kansas on a swimming scholarship and I’m singing.”
According to KU Athletics records, Anderson was a top competitor in the butterfly and backstroke events. During her junior year, she scored 77 points for the Jayhawks at the 2011 Big 12 Championships.
Her athlete’s profile says she chose KU because “it is the most beautiful place on Earth” and that her favorite sport to watch other than swimming was basketball.
She obviously transferred those good feelings to Swift who visited Lawrence to see Anderson in 2009. The visit created a stir as word spread that the budding star was on campus.
Former KU students also have pictures of Swift during that visit at The Hawk bar, a popular hangout for generations of Jayhawks.
Swift later described a perfect day as one where she would visit Kansas to see Abigail. She said she loved Kansas.
They’ve maintained that friendship more than 20 years.
Anderson appeared in Swift’s “Miss Americana” documentary. In May 2023 Anderson attended the Eras Tour in Nashville, where Swift dedicated an acoustic version of “Fifteen” to her “beautiful, redheaded high school best friend,” Billboard reported.
Swift stood with her best friend as a bridesmaid when Anderson married her first husband, photographer Matt Lucier, in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts in 2017.
So it’s not that big of a stretch to assume that Anderson would return the favor now.
It is, after all, what besties do.
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