Country-pop star Taylor Swift occasionally travels smuggled inside a suitcase to avoid paparazzi and fans, according to former One Direction member Zayn Malik.
Rumours about Swift’s suitcase sneaking first surfaced during the summer of last year, when her security staff were photographed carrying a large piece of luggage. The picture appeared on celebrity photo service website Splash News with the caption: “Taylor Swift being transported in a huge suitcase from her Tribeca apartment into her truck”, setting off a flurry of attention on social media, says E! News.
However, Swift’s management quickly denied the rumors and the publication retracted the photo and caption.
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But in a Vogue profile published on Wednesday, Malik claimed that the rumours were, in fact, true. “She was travelling around in a suitcase”, he said, when discussing how Swift avoids the paparazzi. Malik has collaborated with Swift on music before, and his former bandmate Harry Styles once dated the star. In addition, Malik’s girlfriend, Gigi Hadid, is a close friend of Swift’s. All of which means his comments have “lent new credibility to, if not outright verification of, the fan theory”, says music website Spin.
If the report is true, Swift may have taken inspiration from other celebrities who used the same method, such as Robbie Williams and Adele.
During Adele’s summer 2017 tour, she was escorted on stage via a rolling box in order to avoid contact with fans.
“Adele sits in the box for several minutes as she is taken from her dressing room right to the centre of the crowd”, a source told The Sun.
“It is a very sweaty and unglamorous part of the show for Adele to get through but she’s very down to earth and jokes about it.”
Former Take That star Robbie Williams explains in his memoir, Reveal, how he would use the trick to smuggle his friend Geri Halliwell past reporters in her Spice Girls heyday, reports BBC.
“I had a genius idea to put her in a Hold-All [suitcase] because she’s a very small person. I literally put her in this duffel bag and put her over my shoulder. I had the paparazzi all taking pictures and I’m like, ‘Hi, guys!’”
